At Zany Progressive our biggest fight is to get money out of politics. Unless we do that, we will never win any of the other fights: We fight for criminal justice reform, common sense gun reform, LGBTQ+ rights, civil rights, voting rights, climate justice, human rights, and we push for different policies that will bring positive changes to our country.
We Need to Get Money Out of Politics in Order to Win the Other Fights.
It is the key to success in winning our list of fights. It’s also a roadblock on the path to success in having real, authentic people representing us in government. Currently, members of Congress are millionaires. That’s a problem. They are out of touch with the struggles of the average American.
The cost of running a campaign for the Senate or House (or for president!) make it impossible for an everyday, average person to run. And that is what we need! 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. It’s how our Senators have become millionaires while supposedly working for the people.
Real People Wanted
Imagine a government of real, authentic Americans who are there to serve the people. Nurses, coaches, gym teachers, pet sitters—regular people who genuinely want to help the people who sent them there to represent them. Taking away 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 our reality is that we have a bunch of rich, elite, and corrupt people leading us (minus the Squad and Justice Democrats). If we want to achieve our dream, we can wait until the current members die off, and elect young Progressive leaders to take their places, or we 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 Senator John Fetterman of Pennsylvania. He ran as a Progressive and was a fighter for Pennsylvanians and all Americans.
Get Money Out of Politics: It’s Strong Corrupting Power
He 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 floors of Congress. 😁😂
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 had 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 of our politicians with 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, Congress.gov, 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 passed or failed in Congress. 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 their donors we got from the first website.
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—tell him to vote.”
They Work For Their Donors—Not Us
That is precisely why we need to get money out of politics. Our politicians work for the donors and we want to make it so they work for us again. We will donate money to their campaign if they do their job fighting for us and voting for legislation that will help us, the people of their state.
When they do a good job they get money for their campaign, because we want them to continue working for us. They also get our 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 our 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. What really bothers me is how our politicians act like they are above us, better than us, and have authority over us.
They are supposed to be our equals who were chosen to go and do things that will better our lives. Right now our politicians don’t care about our votes. They don’t care about working to better our lives because they aren’t dependant on us for campaign funds.
Look at taxes. The point of us paying taxes is to fund our government that is working to improve our lives. The money is supposed to benefit us, not go to weapons manufacturers and fund foreign wars.
In our alternate reality where everything is working as it’s meant to, we would have universal healthcare, paid family leave (Israel has both, yet we’re sending them billions of dollars), free pre-K and community college, our infrastructure wouldn’t be falling apart, millions of people wouldn’t be without healthcare, or a home, andthe list goes on.. Money in politics has destroyed everything.
I don’t know if you know this, because it’s not talked about much, but we are the richest country in the world, yet the only developed nation without universal healthcare and paid family leave. We are the only country that has mass shootings.
We pay $700 for a drug while every other countries pay $20. Why? Because drug manufacturers have paid off our politicians so they vote not to have government-funded healthcare, but private insurance companies that drive up healthcare costs to enrich themselves. It is glaringly obvious: the people currently in Congress have failed miserably in their job working for US.
Yet, we elect them over and over and over. Why? I think it’s a combination of voters who don’t follow politics and people not being aware of how our government is supposed to work. It’s also due to the reasons I laid out in a 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!
We will not send you anything else after sending the information about the fight to get money out of politics. We aren’t like other websites that will use your email to send other stuff that you don’t want. If you DO want to hear from us again, subscribe to our weekly newsletter that sends the hottest news stories from that week directly to your inbox. We will include updates about this fight in that newsletter as well.
Subscribe to the hot news Newsletter
*I cannot express how sick and tired I am of hearing that talking point. We know it’s just a talking point because every politician says it.
Invite others to join us 👇🏻
