Although MAYDAY seems to have no interest in "synergy" (or other interaction) with the Sanders campaign and its supporters, I have encountered reactions from two Sanders groups, which deserve reporting. How representative the reactions will turn out for other Sanders groups remains to be seen.
In the case of one state group, I was approved as a member. I made the post set out in Report on joining Sanders Facebook groups. A person in the group commented that campaign finance reform was central in the Sanders campaign and she did not see how what I was proposing would be a distraction. Thereafter, the administrator removed me from the group without any notice to me.
The second group is Wisconsin for Bernie Sanders 2016, which I discuss in To campaign finance reform organizations. The upshot of that is I have been removed from that group as well.
The extent to which other Sanders groups will not allow me to join and/or post or comment remains to be seen.
Maybe MAYDAY will continue to have no interest in synergy or other interaction with the Sanders campaign, but that could change.
Consider things that Prof. Lessig has been saying recently.
In Why No One Will Reform Washington (from this month), Prof. Lessig sets out his posture, to wit, first, Congress cannot take action about fundamental issues until Congress is freed from its "corrupting dependence . . . on campaign cash,", and, second, no candidate (including Bernie Sanders) is offering a credible plan, to be implemented immediately upon election of the candidate, to liberate Congress from its corrupting dependence on campaign cash.
Prof. Lessig's mantra to the Presidential candidates is, "Where is your plan?"
Prof. Lessig has come to the belief that the political real world will not allow for a "regular" President to have and implement immediately a plan for the liberation of Congress. To deal with this, Prof. Lessig is putting forth a concept of a "trustee President," who would fulfill one promise (liberating Congress) and then resign. (For more on this, see Frodo Baggins for President and On the Trustee President: Not EITHER/OR but BOTH/AND).
Prof. Lessig considers the 2016 Presidential race to be different from the past because virtually all of the candidates are talking about the issue, and Prof. Lessig says it is important for campaign finance reformers to keep the candidates talking about the issue. (Listen to Prof. Lessig's talk about this on July 4th, which can be found here.)
Note particularly, in On the Trustee President: Not EITHER/OR but BOTH/AND, Prof. Lessig's recounting of his meeting with Bernie Sanders before Sanders announced, and Prof. Lessig's conclusion that Sanders agrees that Sanders, as a "regular" President, cannot bring about the needed reform.
MAYDAY, in 2015, has thus far limited itself to contacting members of Congress to ask them to commit to fundamental reform. This has included soliciting MAYDAY supporters to do Congressional contacting and to reach out to other voters to participate as well. The amount of grassroots activity going on in this effort appears extremely modest.
Whether continuation of the same by MAYDAY will contribute much to advancing what Prof. Lessig has been saying recently is dubious to me.
I think MAYDAY needs to expand its activities, including engaging with the Sanders campaign and other Presidential campaigns.
If there is engagement (call that "politicking"), consideration needs to be given to how best to go about it (call that "strategizing").
EDIT: Other campaign finance reform organizations have their own approaches for fixing the political system that is broken. I don't know how fussed the other organizations are about what Prof. Lessig is trying to advance on campaign finance reform, or whether the other organizations care much about "politicking and strategizing" relative to the same. There is no reason, however, not to inform them about this.
The Creed of Greed and Assholes Everywhere
ReplyDeleteWe all know them, the assholes! The users, the system abusers and posers looking to convince, the weak minded to do their bidding. We grow up with them, endure them in school, and bite our tongues at work because of them! The complete blowhard that makes sure you and everyone else in their presence, knows of their faux perfection, and are constantly looking to make you miserable, in order to make themselves happy. The sad fact is that for some sad and scary reason people that are manipulating assholes get promoted by other manipulating assholes and in turn become our bosses and supervisors. Turning our workplaces into little fiefdoms of shit and complete absurdity!
How well could things work, without them? It gets even sadder on the political level where being a complete manipulative asshole becomes a badge of honor, as seen as necessary to make tough decisions. As if logic, ethics and truth were just meaningless words, which they do their best, to make that real! The lack of logic, ethics and truth are the real reasons that our workplace, economy and politics have become a giant pile of shit with complete assholes on the very top and other asshole fighting to become the top assholes! We have allowed the manipulators to become dominant! Why must we become slaves to such an inefficient and wasteful system?
The true democratic ideal of the Founding Fathers was a stable and happy society built from the bottom-up. Not the royalist society of the Europeans with the monarchy imposed by force and tradition, from the top-down. We have begun this road through the freedoms of the Constitution and Bill of Rights. But this is just a beginning! Democracy was always a work in progress and it still is! The demise of democracy is far from fact and it lives in the souls of most Americans. While many mix up the freedom to be stupid as a right, it was never the goal of democracy to sanction idiocy and poor mental health. It was to build a structure that anyone, as a citizen of America, could rise to the level of their talents no matter the position of their parents in society. We are rapidly seeing that dream twisted to a nightmare of prejudice and concentration of opportunity for just a few and stagnation for the rest.
There is a great national and societal cost to the ascendance of the Greedy and the Assholes! Not because we are jealous of their success, such as it is. But because of the hidden cost of the relegating the majority to a place well below their talents. In order to give the few, recipients of the golden egg and sperm or the greedy manipulators and assholes that keep us from being, what our talents can take us!
RC Romine
https://youtu.be/paa6q_Rjhus The Creed of Greed and Assholes Everywhere!