This feels like a Bait and Switch campaign [View all]

[Veilex]

Last edited Tue Jul 1, 2014, 04:33 PM - Edit history (1)

So, a friend of mine posted in facebook about a new campaign to get money out of politics... problem is, when I went to the website, I started having all kinds of little red flags and warning bells go off. Below is my response to the facebook post, along with their website address and video
https://mayday.us/#about-mayday

#t=166

My reason for not supporting Mayday is this; It is a new movement. It is using buzzwords like "reform", and buzz-phrases like “We need to take our country back” it doesn't provide any concrete plans for the use of the money other than an overly broad "to win a Congress committed to fundamental reform"

I’ll break it down a little further… we start with the titular “Help us reduce the influence of money in politics!” – However, this doesn’t tell us WHO’S money interests we’re fighting. This could literally be anyone. It could be your and my money, the money from big corporations or money from Ren & Stimpy, we don’t know.

Another line that pops out at me is: “needs to get a Congress committed to fundamental reform by 2016” – What fundamental reform? Sure we have the overly broad “get money out of politics”, but we’ve already seen the gaping flaw in that comment. The two lines are also conspicuously broken up… almost as if they were two separate comments to make it more defensible in a court setting (Well, it’s not our fault if viewer’s got some kind of implied meaning).

The video goes out of its way to make tons of IMPLIED statements, but doesn’t actually state any details… additionally, they’ve gotten some of their statistics from the CATO institute, an ultra-Libertarian think tank headed by none other than Charles Koch of the Koch Brothers (the same people that have been pushing for things such as the most recent supreme court ruling)

The video goes on to talk about “changing the way campaigns are funded” but fails, again, to give us specific details on what changes in campaign funding is being sought (which is a whole lot different from the broad “Get money out of politics”)

More broad language from the video “Fundamental reform in how campaigns are funded” tells us nothing. It’s a broad statement that could mean eliminating all laws that put limitations on corporate political involvement, or it could actually mean giving power back to the people…its completely unclear what they mean.

“A Super Pac, to get rid of Super Pac’s for good” Sounds appealing doesn’t it? Wait, but wouldn’t eliminating rules requiring super pacs in order for corporations to make political contributions achieve the same thing?

I’m sorry but this campaign has all of the hallmarks of a bait and switch campaign that conservative think tanks are so very fond of.