RepUs_Josh

I think one of the most important things is to approach the conversation about corruption with a willingness to call out your own “side.” Liberals tend to get angry about money in politics when it’s coming from conservatives, and conservatives get mad about liberal spending. But everybody is mad about the same thing – big money and special interests controlling our political system. So just saying, “You’re right, both sides need to stop taking money" can make a huge difference.

In terms of resources, this TED talk is a great place to start! https://www.ted.com/talks/jonathan_haidt_on_the_moral_mind

Well, Gil is running as a purely satirical candidate whose name doesn't actually appear on the ballot, so the odds of that happening are pretty low. If he does win, his first official act will be to stitch the logos of his financial backers onto his suit NASCAR-style.

Trump has promised to “drain the swamp” in his first 100 days of office with a series of policies that crack down on DC corruption. We think that’s great – it’s about time a president made fighting corruption one of their top issues.

Unfortunately, we’ve seen too many times in the past that Congress is unwilling to go along with reform, because the current system is what got them elected in the first place. That’s why we are focusing on state-based reforms: because we don’t have to wait for politicians to act. We can go around them and pass comprehensive laws ourselves that stop political bribery, end secret money, and fix our broken elections.

That’s what voters just did this election when they passed the South Dakota Government Accountability and Anti-Corruption Act, which finally makes it illegal for lobbyists to give secret, unlimited gifts to politicians, changes how elections are funded so voters have more of a voice, makes political spending transparent, and ramps up enforcement so lawbreakers get punished.

We rely on journalists and whistleblowers to expose corruption. Some great organizations doing this work are Center for Public Integrity and ProPublica, and there are plenty of local investigative journalists exposing city and state corruption. But there’s more we can do. We need more anti-corruption watchdog organizations in cities and states across the country. Playing that role is something Represent.Us hopes to do in the future.

Yes, with momentum from our wins this year, we plan expand our issue set beyond 1) stopping political bribery and 2) ending secret money to also 3) fixing our broken elections. And that means both tackling gerrymandering by creating independent redistricting commissions and also overhauling voting systems so that independents can run and win office without being brandished a “spoiler.” This is a crucial addition to our policy agenda, because we can do all three reforms through state and local ballot initiatives and redraw the political map of America, city by city and state by state. These policies create more choices for voters, make elections more civil, and reduce the power of the two major parties.