Last updated on November 19th, 2024 at 05:17 am
At Zany Progressive our biggest fight is to get money out of politics. Unless Americans do that, the Zany Community will never reach any of our other goals: We fight for criminal justice reform, common sense gun reform, LGBTQ+ rights, civil rights, voting rights, climate justice, healthcare reform, human rights, and we push for policies that will bring positive changes to our country. See our About and Mission Statement pages to learn more.
You Need To Get Money Out Of Politics In Order To Win The Other Fights.
It is the key to success in reachingpositive change goals on the list above. It’s also a roadblock on the path to success in having real, authentic people representing you in government. Currently, members of Congress are millionaires. That’s a problem. They are out of touchwith the struggles of the average American. That doesn’t include the members who don’t take corporate money: Senator Elizabeth Warren, Senator Bernie Sanders, and members of “The Squad.”
The cost of running a campaign for the Senate or House (or president!) make it impossible for an everyday, average person to run. And that is what you need! The average cost of running a campaign for Senate in 2024 is $10 billion! People who are already wealthy enough to run for office oftentimes do it to enrich themselves further. Insider trading is a huge part of the corruption. Insider trading is when people inside a certain profession buy, trade, or sell stock based on information they receive that is not available to the public. It’s one way that Senators have become millionaires while “working for the American people.”
Real People Wanted
Imagine a government made up of real, authentic people who are there because they want to serve the people and improve their lives. Nurses, coaches, gym teachers, pet sitters—regular people who genuinely want to help the people who elected them to be their representative in government. Removing the opportunity to become a millionaire as a member of Congress leads to people running for office because they want to help make the country better. Full stop.
Unfortunately, that’s a dream and the reality is that there are a bunch of rich, elite, and corrupt people leading you (minus Warren, Sanders, the Squad, and Justice Democrats). If you want to achieve your dreams, you can wait until the current members die off, and elect young Progressive leaders to take their places, or you can end corruption and get money out of all areas of politics.
If you need evidence of how strong money’s influence can be, look at the case of Senator John Fetterman of Pennsylvania. He ran as a Progressive and was a fighter for Pennsylvanians as Lt. Governor.
Get Money Out Of Politics: Proof Of Its Power To Corrupt
John Fetterman was elected to Congress and stayed true to his values, at first, when he was fighting against the dress code so he could wear his signature hoodie and shorts outfit on the Senate floor.
Then he changed.
He started going on legacy media promoting Israel and their devastating genocide in Gaza (”Israel has a right to defend itself.”). It has progressively (no pun intended) gotten worse.
It was obvious and undeniable—money from AIPAC and the Israel lobby corrupted Senator John Fetterman.
Some people say that he was this person all along and was lying during his campaign. No. He was Lieutenant Governor of my state and was always fighting against the Republicans while promoting Progressive values.
Our Secret Weapon To Get Money Out Of Politics
If you aren’t already aware of our secret “weapon” against corrupt politicians, it’s a combination of websites that expose the corruption using facts and data. That makes it impossible for anyone to dispute our evidence of money’s corrupting influence.
If you choose to join us in our fight, you will need this “weapon” to spread the word about corruption and to point out the evidence when your Representative says, “I don’t take corporate donor money.” Or “I voted to get money out of politics.”
Opensecrets.org + Congress.gov = *mic drop statements*
OpenSecrets.org allows you to see exactly who donates to a particular politician in a list of donors so you can see not only who their top donor is, but exactly how much money they have taken from that donor.
The second part of our weapon is Congress.gov. (it might seem odd to use the website of the group we are fighting to change, but it’ll make sense in a second.) You can use this site to view any bill that was voted on in Congress. As a bonus, you’ll be able to learn exactly what is included in every bill. That’s invaluable, but not part of our “weapon.” We are looking for the votes. We can see who voted “Yea” or “Nay” on a bill, then compare that with the list of their donors we retrieved from the first website.
Their top donor + how they voted = the corrupting influence of money
This “weapon” allows us to say, with facts and data backing it up, “Senator so and so voted against a bill that would have prevented mass shootings because his top donors are the NRA and gun lobby. He has taken over $400,000 from them this year! He votes how they tell him to vote. Not how you—the people who sent him there—want him to vote.”
They Work For Their Donors—Not Us
That is precisely why it’s important to get money out of politics. Your politicians work for the donors and we want to make it so they work for you again. You will donate money to their campaign if they do their job fighting for you and voting for legislation that will help you, the people of their state.
When they do a good job they get money for their campaign, because you will want them to continue working for you. They also get your votes in the next election. If they do a bad job, they don’t have the money to run an effective campaign and they don’t have your vote in the next election.
That is what “A government by the people, for the people” means. That’s why it’s called self-governance. It’s the way democracy is supposed to work.
They are supposed to be your equals who were chosen to go and do things that will better your lives. Right now your politicians don’t care about your votes. They don’t care about working to better your lives because they aren’t dependant on you for campaign funds.
For example, look at taxes. The point of Americans paying taxes is to fund a government that is working to improve your lives and keep you safe, healthy, and happy. The money is supposed to benefit you, not go to weapons manufacturers and to fund foreign wars.
In the alternate reality where everything is working as it’s meant to, you have universal healthcare, paid family leave (Israel has both, yet the U.S. is sending them billions of dollars), free pre-K and community college, the infrastructure isn’t falling apart, millions of people aren’t without healthcare or a home, and the list goes on…
Money in politics has destroyed everything.
You may not know this, because it’s not talked about much, but even though the U.S. is the richest country in the world, it is the only developed nation without universal healthcare and paid family leave.
It’s also the only country that has mass shootings.
Prescription Drugs Cost Americans 4.2 X More Than Other Countries
You pay over four times more for prescription drugs compared to every other country.
Why?
Because drug manufacturers have paid off your politicians so they vote against government-funded healthcare (Medicare For All), so you end up with private insurance companies and hospitals that drive up healthcare costs to enrich themselves. It is glaringly obvious: the politicians who are currently in Congress have failed miserably in their job—working for YOU.
Having privatized healthcare, health insurance (and prisons) means that these institutions are for-profit, and they are only worried about the money they make and the bonuses given to their shareholders. If it weren’t for insurance companies offering to pay a hospital $300 for a dose of Tylenol, YOU wouldn’t be charged $300 (Spitballing, but it’s a crazy high amount.)
The CEO of the drug manufacturer that makes Ozempic was interviewed about why other countries, like Germany, pay $59 per dose while Americans are charged $969 per dose. He said it’s because that is the price they negotiated with insurance companies in the U.S.
The company charges U.S. residents $969 a month for Ozempic, but the same drug costs $155 in Canada, $122 in Denmark, and $59 in Germany.
If you had something you were selling for $5 and someone said, “You can sell that in our neighborhood for $500,” would you say no? The drug companies bribe your politicians so they don’t vote for things like allowing Medicare to negotiate drug prices. Because the U.S. runs on Capitalism, Congress had to pass legislation that allowed our Department of Health and Human Services to step in and say “We are not paying more than $35 for insulin. You cannot charge anyone in this country more than that.”
See our page about Medicare for All.
That means the government has the ability to dictate that citizens won’t pay more than the actual cost of a drug. Insurance companies are the ones in control right now when it comes to the cost of prescription drugs.
You would have to be in a situation where Medicare For All legislation was passed and then the government would provide everyone with insurance as a basic human right, and they would refuse to pay those crazy prices. Drug companies would then charge us the same as every other developed nation that takes care of its citizens—using their money that was taken out of their paychecks in taxes.
As it should be.
It could only happen in a true democracy without corrupt politicians and a Supreme Court that legalized bribery. SCOTUS recently legalized bribes by ruling that it’s not illegal corruption for a corporation to give a politician money in exchange for something. As long as the money is given to them afterward. As a form of “gratuity.”
Yet, they are elected over and over and over. Why? It’s likely a combination of voters who don’t follow politics and a lack of awareness of how our government is supposed to function. It’s also due to reasons laid out in our post about people voting against their own best interests.
It has been this way for so long (thanks SCOTUS), most people don’t realize there is another way.
If you’re interested in joining the fight to get money out of politics, sign up at the piggy bank below, and Let’s do this!
Join The Fight. Let’s Get Money Out Of Our Politics For Good!
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