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MayDay PAC

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Re: MayDay PAC

#12

Post by linksbro »

snide wrote: post #10

Can someone more knowledgable give some specific details about their plan? I've read what I could on their website, but I can't really get a hold of what the specific platform is, if any parties are involed...etc. For example, they want to win 5 races. Who would these candidates be? Is pure election reform their only task? It's very easy for me to understand the anger. But my pessimism makes me skeptical of yet anoth…

Here is "the plan" from their website. https://mayday.us/the-plan/

If you are interested, Republic Lost by Lessig is a great read on the reality of campaign finance.

Re: MayDay PAC

#13

Post by memonkey »

purephase wrote: post #2

I'm frankly surprised that there is any sort of funding shortfall for this idea. For US-based profitable start-ups or established companies, this is absolutely in your best interests. Two issues alone, Net Neutrality and the NSA overreach directly impact your ability to operate or expand globally and should be of major concern to smaller US-based technology companies. It's not like Lessig is some nobody. If anyone ha…

Lessig is probably the only honest reason I'm donating. I've been following his career for quite some time and a lot of the things he's written are persuasive and coherent and insightful. There are similar SuperPACs (WolfPAC) but, again, I wouldn't have been super aware of them if it weren't for Lessig and some of my own research.

Re: MayDay PAC

#14

Post by ehc »

The key thing that I don't think enough people understand is that this campaign finance reform that Lessig is working on is an issue for anyone who has ANY cause. Whether your cause is is climate change, net neutrality, or anything else, meaningful change with that issue is largely blocked by THIS issue (money in politics).

Lessig's personal path of giving up his work copyright reform as his "issue" to focus on corruption is exactly this understanding - that this needs to be treated as the core problem before any progress can be made with net neutrality, immigration or other issues.

For this reason I'm very surprised that the tech community, who is so loud about net neutrality, isn't speaking up more about this corruption. Sure, there are different approaches to fighting against it, but I think Lessig's experiment is a great one and definitely worth our money.

Re: MayDay PAC

#15

Post by rdl »

I'll probably donate to this in a few hours, but to understand it more fully, what is the argument against getting PACs/money out of politics?

(Clearly there's a simple argument against MayDay PAC itself, that it might be unsuccessful in its mission, but that's a much weaker argument.)

As far as I understand it, there are four main arguments for money in politics:

1) Money is speech; protecting free speech is important, and protecting political speech (and thus financial donations to campaigns) is probably the most important form of protected speech.

2) The utilitarian argument: if money is taken out of politics, groups with less economic power but greater organization and numbers will become dominant. (I'm not sold on pure democracy either). Control of "large audiences" without control of money to reach the public might become important; I'd rather live in a world where I can donate hundreds or thousands to EFF to influence policy vs. a world where Pat Robertson or Oprah are the only people who can influence voters.

3) The implementation argument: if this eliminates a fairly accessible form of financing (the PAC), those who control smaller but more enduring forms of money for political contribution will rise in power. IMO, those people tend to be much more objectionable than people who contribute to PACs. Or, if companies are kept out of politics, but unions are allowed to continue donating, etc.

4) Priorities: this might NOT be the most important issue right now. Maybe immigration is. Maybe not going to war in Iran is. etc.

I don't know how valid these arguments are.

Re: MayDay PAC

#17

Post by inglesp »

rdl wrote: post #15

I'll probably donate to this in a few hours, but to understand it more fully, what is the argument against getting PACs/money out of politics? (Clearly there's a simple argument against MayDay PAC itself, that it might be unsuccessful in its mission, but that's a much weaker argument.) As far as I understand it, there are four main arguments for money in politics: 1) Money is speech; protecting free speech is importa…

Maybe it's because I'm not American, but I've got no idea what "money is speech" means. It sounds almost Orwellian from this side of the pond.

Re: MayDay PAC

#18

Post by rdl »

inglesp wrote: post #17
rdl wrote: post #15

I'll probably donate to this in a few hours, but to understand it more fully, what is the argument against getting PACs/money out of politics? (Clearly there's a simple argument against MayDay PAC itself, that it might be unsuccessful in its mission, but that's a much weaker argument.) As far as I understand it, there are four main arguments for money in politics: 1) Money is speech; protecting free speech is importa…

Maybe it's because I'm not American, but I've got no idea what "money is speech" means. It sounds almost Orwellian from this side of the pond.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buckley_v._Valeo

Re: MayDay PAC

#20

Post by [deleted] »

ehc wrote: post #14

The key thing that I don't think enough people understand is that this campaign finance reform that Lessig is working on is an issue for anyone who has ANY cause. Whether your cause is is climate change, net neutrality, or anything else, meaningful change with that issue is largely blocked by THIS issue (money in politics). Lessig's personal path of giving up his work copyright reform as his "issue" to focus on corru…

[deleted]
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