Moyers: Why the First Issue Is Money in Politics

[Triana]

Constitutional scholar and activist Lawrence Lessig, whose march through New Hampshire to get money out of politics is featured on our broadcast this week, often says that his crusade is the most urgent in America because it impacts virtually every other issue. From achieving tax reform to fighting climate change to strengthening the social safety net, we will see no progress until the wealthy entities that benefit can no longer buy up politicians to prevent the status quo from changing.

“The people who want to stop reform will pay an enormous amount of money to be able to achieve that,” Lessig told us when we met during his march. “…What this system has done is made the politics of dysfunction incredibly profitable.” Some lobbyists, he noted, even advertise their ability to exploit the system and use legislators to “delay and obstruct” progress in Congress.

“We will never get your issue solved until we fix this issue first,” Lessig said in a TED talk last year. “So it’s not that mine is the most important issue. It’s not. Yours is the most important issue, but mine is the first issue, the issue we have to solve before we get to fix the issues you care about.”

Here are five examples of issues beaten into stasis by a barrage of big money.

THE REST:

http://billmoyers.com/2014/02/14/why-the-first-issue-is-money-in-politics/

[Triana]

1. Lawrence Lessig’s March to End Corruption

http://vimeo.com/86704257

Lawrence Lessig’s March to End Corruption
February 14, 2014

This week, we bring you a special report on a two-week, 185-mile trek through the winter cold in New Hampshire, led in January by constitutional scholar and activist Lawrence Lessig to raise awareness of the crippling problem of corruption in American politics.

“If you think about every single important issue America has to address — if you’re on the right and you care about tax reform or addressing the issues of the deficit, or on the left and you care about climate change or real health care reform — whatever the issue is, if you look at the way our system functions right now you have to see that there will be no sensible reform given the way we fund campaigns,” Lessig says.

Inspired by Doris “Granny D” Haddock’s march across America, Lessig says his movement, the New Hampshire Rebellion, is encouraging voters to ask all the presidential candidates who soon will be haunting the Granite State: “How are you going to end the system of corruption in Washington?”

LINK to Moyers segment: http://billmoyers.com/segment/lawrence-lessig%E2%80%99s-march-to-end-corruption/

[woo me with science]

2. TO THE GREATEST PAGE.

THIS IS THE TRUTH AND THE CRUX OF THE PROBLEM WE FACE: NO ISSUE GETS FIXED UNTIL WE ADDRESS THE CORRUPTION OF MONEY IN POLITICS.

“We will never get your issue solved until we fix this issue first,” Lessig said in a TED talk last year. “So it’s not that mine is the most important issue. It’s not. Yours is the most important issue, but mine is the first issue, the issue we have to solve before we get to fix the issues you care about.”

[Coyotl]

3. K&R

[bvar22]

4. Catch-22

The only people that can "change" The System
are benefiting from The System.

How many professional politicians are willing to say "Goodbye" to the perks of cushy 1% living
by biting the Hand that is Feeding Them?

"That's some catch, that Catch-22," he observed.

"It's the best there is," Doc Daneeka agreed.”
― Joseph Heller, Catch-22

[woo me with science]

5. kick

[madokie]

6. Until we do this we're screwed

And since the politician who are profiting from the way it is now is the ones who have to change it the road to getting this done is going to be rocky and almost if not impossible.
First things first, we have to get the money out of our politics

[Enthusiast]

7. K&R! This post should have hundreds of recommendations!

Thousands!

[reformist2]

8. It truly is the "SINE QUA NON" of reforms - which basically means "without which, nothing."

The only reforms that get done are those that don't impact the 1% and their piles of money, which are very few indeed.

[woo me with science]

9. kick

[johnnyreb]

10. K&R, money out of politics.

Lessig says his movement, the New Hampshire Rebellion, is encouraging voters to ask all the presidential candidates who soon will be haunting the Granite State: “How are you going to end the system of corruption in Washington?”

[woo me with science]

11. kick

[woo me with science]

12. Kick. This is important.

We are surrounded by evidence of devastating climate change, devastating inequality, and unconscionable human pain....yet the direction of policy continues relentlessly in a corporate direction.

[WillyT]

13. HUGE K & R !!!

[liberal_at_heart]

14. I agree it is the first and most important issue.