Reddit reviews Republic, Lost: How Money Corrupts Congress--and a Plan to Stop It

The real foundation of the problems we are facing is bad campaign finance law and the corruption that results from it. Before we get to elect anybody they are first selected in what you could call a "shadow election" of money. Those with enough cash and connections to run a campaign are those who get to make a (serious) run for office. We can't elect people who will work in good faith because we only get to choose from the pool of people who were pre-selected by money. That is why we always end up picking between the giant douche on the left and the turd sandwich on the right. The giant douche and turd sandwich were pre-picked by and are beholden to moneyed interests which leaves us with the situation we have now. If campaign finance law is changed to something more sensible like a small dollar system then we will get real people in elections who want to work for us instead of the money-picked jerks we have now.

Please read Republic Lost by Lawrence Lessig and visit /r/rootstrikers

Thank you. For anyone not convinced, I suggest this video and this book.

If you are already on board and looking for ways to help, here's one: http://mayday.us

Lessig has done a TED talk on campaign finance and also written a stellar book on the subject. He knows his shit.

no. If you are concerned about the issue, read Larry Lessig's book, Republic Lost. There are proposals in how to change things without subverting the will of the people.

You should read Lessig's "Republic, Lost" if you haven't already. He talks about Congress's dependence corruption (as opposed to quid pro quo corruption) and shows how publicly-financed campaigns could fix our broken political system.

Republic, Lost by Lawrence Lessig is a pretty good place to start.

http://www.amazon.com/Republic-Lost-Money-Corrupts-Congress/dp/0446576433

Lessig's premise is basically that the big problem isn't corruption in the traditional sense. If you picture it as politicians being handed paper bags full of cash under the table in exchange for voting a certain way on a certain bill, that sort of thing really isn't all that widespread. The big problem is the completely legal economy of favors and undue influence that exists, which prevents both liberals and conservatives from making any progress on many of their policy objectives.

Liars and Outliers by Bruce Schneier is another book that has a lot to say about corruption, but he approaches the problem from the perspective of examining the various systems that society puts in place to compel good behavior from its members, and how those systems fail.

http://www.amazon.com/Liars-Outliers-Enabling-Society-Thrive/dp/1118143302

While I agree that the buzzword commercials should go, campaign financing really is the root of these problems. Congress has developed a dependency on campaign financing that directly competes with their originally intended sole dependency on "The People". You should really check out Lawrence Lessig's book "Republic, Lost: How Money Corrupts Congress--and a Plan to Stop It", which he talks about here.

This is well documented. Lessig has written about it in a very accessible way.

I've always respected Larry Lessig's work -- he fought copyright until a few years ago, when he switched to fighting corruption in government.

He just wrote a book called "Republic, Lost" about it. One of the things he proposes is public funding of elections, where each voter gets an amount of money they can allocate among the candidates they support.

http://www.amazon.com/Republic-Lost-Money-Corrupts-Congress/dp/0446576433/ref=pd_sxp_f_pt

>These people aren't an electoral threat to me.

I think this is the most important problem of this generation. Elected officials spend most of their time fund raising and the extreme majority of the time, the candidate who raises more wins (something like 98% of the time I read in this book but I don't remember exactly). The government doesn't care about about 20-something unemployed people and no candidates will so long as they have to raise money. Low voter turnout is evidence of rationality more than stupidity or apathy.

This is the point of "we are the 99%". It is the <1% whose interests that are reflected by government. This is likely because they have money to fund political campaigns.

When you design a multiplayer game, you're trying to design incentives and rules to channel players' competitive energy and aggression into an experience that's fun and fair for everyone. That's true of a community-based site as well.

Back in the 90s me and my friend and CounterPAC cofounder, Zack Booth Simpson, were working on a game called Netstorm. At that time John McCain and Russ Feingold were just starting their campaign finance reform effort. We got to thinking - it's great that they're doing that, but there's a paradox in the government trying to regulate itself. The guys with money are always going to react faster than the legislators and regulators.

That made us wonder whether you could have a private organization that would be on the "good guy" side. We had various ideas, but no time or money to make it happen.

Now I do have the money, and I stepped back from Kongregate to make the time.

> Also as a British reader - where can I find more info on PACs and the American political system?

I love this essay Lessig wrote last month: https://medium.com/@lessig/whats-so-bad-about-a-superpac-c7cbcf617b58.

His book is great too: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0446576433/

Lawrence Lessig has done some excellent work on describing how exactly we got here and how, perhaps, we might get out:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mw2z9lV3W1g

BTW, his book "Republic Lost" is amazing!

I share your frustration, but what you propose is 1) not going to happen and 2) not going to solve the long-term problems. Take the time to read Lawrence Lessig's [Republic Lost] (http://www.amazon.com/Republic-Lost-Money-Corrupts-Congress--/dp/0446576433/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1323053002&sr=8-1). It has a very sophisticated understanding of the problem, and difficult but real potential solutions.

Lately, Bruce Bartlett's The Benefit and the Burden and Lawrence Lessig's Republic Lost. Mostly issue politics and future of country type of stuff. That said, I have a bachelor's in poli sci and went to grad school for political theory (ad then went to law school), so my choice materials may be a bit different than most. But you should still read both of those (especially Republic Lost).

i didn't know it was my job to take seriously people who can't understand the complexities of campaign finance and democratic government. if you want to read an enlightening book, i would suggest this: http://www.amazon.com/Republic-Lost-Money-Corrupts-Congress--/dp/0446576433/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1334193301&sr=8-1

1. Natural Capitalism - Creating the Next Industrial Revolution. Most businesses still operate according to a world view that hasn't changed since the start of the Industrial Revolution. Then, natural resources were abundant and labor was the limiting factor of production. But now, there's a surplus of people, while natural capital natural resources and the ecological systems that provide vital life-support services is scarce and relatively expensive. In this groundbreaking blueprint for a new economy, three leading business visionaries explain how the world is on the verge of a new industrial revolution.
   
   
2. The Information Diet. The modern human animal spends upwards of 11 hours out of every 24 in a state of constant consumption. Not eating, but gorging on information ceaselessly spewed from the screens and speakers we hold dear. We're all battling a storm of distractions, buffeted with notifications and tempted by tasty tidbits of information. And just as too much junk food can lead to obesity, too much junk information can lead to cluelessness.
   
   
3. Republic, Lost. With heartfelt urgency and a keen desire for righting wrongs, Harvard law professor Lawrence Lessig takes a clear-eyed look at how fundamentally good people, with good intentions, have allowed our democracy to be co-opted by outside interests, and how this exploitation has become entrenched in the system. Rejecting simple labels and reductive logic - and instead using examples that resonate as powerfully on the Right as on the Left - Lessig seeks out the root causes of our situation. He plumbs the issues of campaign financing and corporate lobbying, revealing the human faces and follies that have allowed corruption to take such a foothold in our system.
   
   
4. Free: How Today's Smartest Businesses Profit by Giving Something for Nothing. A generational and global shift is at play—those below 30 won't pay for information, knowing it will be available somewhere for free, and in China, piracy accounts for about 95% of music consumption. Anderson provides a thorough overview of the history of pricing and commerce, the mental transaction costs that differentiate zero and any other price into two entirely different markets, the psychology of digital piracy and the open-source war between Microsoft and Linux. Although Chris Anderson puts forward an intriguing argument in this cheerful, optimistic book, many critics remained unconvinced.

The American Anti-Corruption Act (AACA) was published in Nov 2012. It reached 300,000 citizen co-sponsors by January 2013 but since then has slowed to a crawl. As of writing this there are only 365,906 signatures. If this sluggish pace continues, support for the AACA will be too weak to pressure congress into making it law.

What's most disappointing is that the internet communities the AACA was most depending on for its success have practically ignored it. There's hardly been any attention generated for the AACA on Reddit over these past 6 months, yet I'm constantly reading comments from Redditors complaining about the excessive influence of money in American democracy and expressing frustration for not knowing how to solve the problem. Meanwhile, well-known activists Lawrence Lessig and Trevor Potter have collaborated to publish a comprehensive solution (the AACA) and a plan for making it law, and Reddit barely notices. It's this type of apathetic laziness that has been the greatest impediment to fixing politics in America, and I know Reddit can do better because of how active we were in opposing SOPA.

So what gives Reddit? Let's wake up already and get the AACA the exposure it needs.

Link to become a citizen co-sponsor of the American Anti-Corruption Act and learn more about it (becoming a citizen co-sponsor just means adding your name to the petition):
http://anticorruptionact.org


Other informative links:

American Anti-Corruption Act: full text and details

American Anti-Corruption Act: analysis of how well individual act provisions will hold up in the Supreme Court (summary: most should be fine)

Lawrence Lessig AMA

Lawrence Lessig TED Talk

Lawrence Lessig Book: Republic, Lost: How Money Corrupts Congress--and a Plan to Stop It

Trevor Potter AMA

OpenSecrets.org: tracks the political money trail

OpenCongress.org: tracks the political money trail, the life cycle of congressional bills, and representative's voting records

Gut reaction: Off with their heads.

Sensible reaction: What can we do, as a reasonable, rational group of concerned citizens, to end this problem?

I'm in the middle of reading Lessig's Republic, Lost: How Money Corrupts Congress--and a Plan to Stop It in the hopes of finding a sensible answer.

Here's what I'm talking about...
http://www.amazon.com/gp/mpd/permalink/m1EYX10ERN0GN1/ref=ent_fb_link

Here's a good place to start:
http://vimeo.com/rootstrikers/anti-corruption-pledge

Republic Lost - Lawrence Lessig

Saying there's no hope is just an excuse for apathy imo. It just takes the right creative solution and the public will to support it. I don't know nearly enough to argue Citizen's United, but I have heard some good ideas that don't conflict with the court ruling. If you have the time/inclination I strongly recommend Republic Lost by Lawrence Lessig. He also has some great Youtube videos.

Edited Spelling

Have you read Lawrence Lessig's thoughts on how money corrupts congress?

If so, do you agree that this sort of lobbying and corruption is a problem?

If so, is there anything that you can do, and what is it?

(Entire book here, and a Google talk about it here)

Have you read Lawrence Lessig's "Republic Lost"? http://www.amazon.com/Republic-Lost-Money-Corrupts-Congress/dp/0446576433

The problem goes beyond "influencing those gullible voters with TV ads!". It affects whose issues get discussed in the legislature, who has direct access to discussing issues with elected officials, and what elected officials consider before taking a position on an issue.

Try this: you're a back-bencher in the majority party from a rural district. You support conservation and protecting the environment for future generations. Your election is coming up later this year, and you have a viable opponent.

A bill comes before the legislature that would legalize a risky & unproven (note: not taking a side on fracking here, just establishing that a controversy exists) method of extracting energy from the ground, and your district happens to contain lots of that potential energy.

You have usually opposed bills like this in the past- once making a speech that made national news. That particular bill failed on a close vote.

A company or industry PAC makes it known that it will spend up to $1m US attacking any candidate that opposes the above-mentioned bill. This is a credible threat from a wealthy, well-connected group. They also make it known privately that they will endorse and heavily fund your opponent should you be outspoken in your opposition

Knowing all of this, how do you vote? Even better, do you do another speech that makes national news? would you still be as outspoken as you were in the past?

edit- Much of this example is shamelessly lifted from Prof. Lawrence Lessig's excellent Republic Lost. Read it and decide for yourself!

Lessig just released a book about how money corrupts politics, including his ideas about how we can change that. It's on my reading list for winter break for sure, and it sounds exactly like what you're looking for. Check it out here: http://www.amazon.com/Republic-Lost-Money-Corrupts-Congress/dp/0446576433

And if you want a preview, check out this awesome talk Lessig gave: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ik1AK56FtVc

http://www.amazon.com/Republic-Lost-Money-Corrupts-Congress/dp/0446576433/ref=ntt_at_ep_dpt_1

Wake up Reddit! Don't let the American Anti-Corruption Act die...

The American Anti-Corruption Act (AACA) was published in Nov 2012. It reached 300,000 citizen co-sponsors by January 2013 but since then has slowed to a crawl. As of writing this there are only about 400,000 signatures. If this sluggish pace continues, support for the AACA will be too weak to pressure congress into making it law.

What's most disappointing is that the internet communities the AACA was most depending on for its success have practically ignored it. There's hardly been any attention generated for the AACA on Reddit over these past 6 months, yet I'm constantly reading comments from Redditors complaining about the excessive influence of money in American democracy and expressing frustration at not knowing how to solve the problem. Meanwhile, well-known activists Lawrence Lessig and Trevor Potter have collaborated to publish a comprehensive solution (the AACA) and a plan for making it law, and Reddit barely notices. I know Reddit can do better because of the strong opposition it showed to SOPA.

So what gives Reddit? Let's wake up already and get the AACA the exposure it needs.

Link to become a citizen co-sponsor of the American Anti-Corruption Act and learn more about it (becoming a citizen co-sponsor just means adding your name to the petition):
http://anticorruptionact.org


Other informative links:

American Anti-Corruption Act: full text and details

American Anti-Corruption Act: analysis of how well individual act provisions will hold up in the Supreme Court (summary: most should be fine)

Lawrence Lessig AMA

Lawrence Lessig TED Talk

Lawrence Lessig Book: Republic, Lost: How Money Corrupts Congress--and a Plan to Stop It

Trevor Potter AMA

OpenSecrets.org: tracks the political money trail

OpenCongress.org: tracks the political money trail, the life cycle of congressional bills, and representative's voting records

EDIT: It appears the link to the video might be down right now. It's basically just a clever commercial highlighting how our senators are practically whoring themselves for political money.

You've got the top post on reddit at the moment and you mention Dr. Lessig, give a shout out to his book!

You should all read it!

Two really big topics I have started to get very interested in, a lot in part due to reddit actually.

[The Healing of America by T.R Reid] (http://www.amazon.com/The-Healing-America-Global-Cheaper/dp/0143118218)

[Republic Lost by Lawrence Lessig] (http://www.amazon.com/Republic-Lost-Money-Corrupts-Congress/dp/0446576433/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&sr=&qid=)

Sorry, we're just too far apart for my responses to be worth my time. You're not looking at the negative effects enough, and seem to be very pro-Government. You're also not providing your case for why we should allow lobbying, thus I'm not learning anything new from this discussion. Rather than respond to your points, as this will likely go back and forth for quite a while, I'd rather list a few books/articles that are anti-lobbying for your consideration. Perhaps you could offer some pro-lobbying books/articles, just in case my position is wrong (which I sincerely don't think it is). Here's the anti-lobbying links:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lobbying_in_the_United_States

http://www.amazon.com/Prophets-War-Lockheed-Military-Industrial-Complex/dp/1568586973

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_lobbying_in_the_United_States

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Direct_lobbying_in_the_United_States

http://india.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/12/11/a-pocket-guide-to-lobbying-in-the-united-states/

http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2012/08/03/627471/private-prisons-spend-45-million-on-lobbying-rake-in-51-billion-for-immigrant-detention-alone/

http://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/top.php

http://business.time.com/2011/05/26/did-lobbying-cause-the-financial-crisis/

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/05/us/politics/05loans.html?pagewanted=all

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390443589304577637773840176082.html?google_editors_picks=true

http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20100723/09055310339.shtml

http://truth-out.org/news/item/8854-the-top-five-special-interest-groups-lobbying-to-keep-marijuana-illegal

http://reporting.sunlightfoundation.com/2013/pro-cispa-backers-spend-over-100-times-more-lobbying-opponents/

http://www.dailyfinance.com/2011/12/13/30-major-u-s-companies-spent-more-on-lobbying-than-taxes/

http://www.npr.org/2009/02/18/100706260/so-damn-much-money-the-influence-of-lobbyists

http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2012/mar/22/our-corrupt-politics-its-not-all-money/?pagination=false

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0446576433?ie=UTF8&tag=thneyoreofbo-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0446576433

Edit: I'd be surprised if you found any pro-lobbying articles/books that weren't written by politicians, bureaucrats, pundits, or lobbyists.

I have two books for you to read:

Influence: Science and Practice

Republic Lost

They both lay out very good reasons for why downplaying the potential sway that dinners, parties, or other favors have on your behavior is not a good idea.