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The ability to explore and analyze campaign finance data on a website that actually works (I don't know if anyone else has ever tried to use the old FEC site...
by bjacobel 11y ago
The ability to explore and analyze campaign finance data on a website that actually works (I don't know if anyone else has ever tried to use the old FEC site...) is a huge step in being able to name and shame abuses of money in politics. This isn't just "a new website," it's a platform for effecting change.
- cryoshon 11y agoWhat's your proposed mechanism for effecting change? Shame doesn't do anything, they are already well-funded and exactly where they wanted to be.
- TeMPOraL 11y agoDoes it matter? If the website lets you identify and pick right targets for maximum effect, then it helps regardless of the "mechanism for effecting change" you seek to employ.
- cryoshon 11y agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_action_committee#Disclosure_rules https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_action_committee#Dis... "Yet despite disclosure rules, it is possible to spend money without voters knowing the identities of donors before the election.[36] In federal elections, for example, political action committees have the option to choose to file reports on a "monthly" or "quarterly" basis.[37][38][39] This allows funds raised by PACs in the final days of the election to be spent and votes cast before the report is due." It matters. Transparency that is deferred until after the decision point of an election means that the potential for change is torpedoed for at least a few years each time. I very much agree that we are better off with any information we can get, but trying to eke democracy out of election forensics is going to be extremely tough.