9 ms·

The Launch of the Mayday Citizens' SuperPAC

134 points by famousactress 12y ago

puppetmaster3 12y ago
Ha, ha. I too will throw stones into the ocean to get less water. Say hello to trillions of $.
Splendor 12y ago
Direct link: http://mayone.us/ http://mayone.us/
- llamataboot 12y ago
  This link just redirects to mayone.us/countdown/ for me now which has nothing on it except for a signup form...
  - llamataboot 12y ago
    fixed now
r00fus 12y ago
I hope they have some big names lined up to launch their "moonshot".
cypherpunks01 12y ago
Lessig's 2011 book "Republic, Lost" is his first foray into the world of writing about politics. It's a fairly shocking read, and I enjoyed it quite a bit. I'm excited that he's partnering with a lot of great people to try and make campaign finance reform a reality.
- higherpurpose 12y ago
  His 1h talk about the contents of the book: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ik1AK56FtVc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ik1AK56FtVc
higherpurpose 12y ago
Money in politics is by far the biggest political issue, I'd say. It's the root cause of most evil in Congress. It's also the reason why Congress has so low approval rating (because they aren't listening to the People, but their few donors), and why they are so useless in terms of collaborating with each other, too. How can they collaborate for the "good of the people", when they come from a position of having to pass new legislation to protect the interests of their donors one way or another. When you look at it from this point of view, you realize why so many refuse to compromise on their positions. Maybe they could compromise on ideology a bit, especially if some solution seems to be getting the consensus approval, but it's a lot harder to compromise on what your donors want, and you have to deliver on their wishes if you want to keep the money coming to your re-election.
jws 12y ago
Sounds like they are testing the fund raising mechanism. The first goal is $1M in 30 days, the second is $5M in 30 more days. In both cases the funds will be matched, so they already have $6M near hand, and realistically there isn't that much more you can do with $12M that you can't do with $6M. I suspect May is to get the first little news articles in the press (Kickstarter meets Elections, underdog to use super pac against super pacs). The June goal is for the follow up articles that should get more widespread coverage. I'm all for putting campaign finance reform at the front of 2014 and 2016. I'm in. ###ALERT### Check for SSL before donating. As of now the page is not secured. Edit: Broken autofill on the donation page? Come on, make it easy. I had to type characters and access my memory to make this happen instead of just clicking.
- gavinpc 12y ago
  Also, it is just me or is the donation page using HTTP instead of HTTPS? Maybe naive, but that's a showstopper for me.
  - jws 12y ago
    You are right! Hope no one was listening when I made my donation. If you try to use SSL you will find a certificate mismatch with the host as well. Ok. Don't donate, put a reminder in your planner to come back and try to change the world next week.
  - DEinspanjer 12y ago
    Yeah, I was going to donate but stopped as soon as I realized that (Thanks LastPass for warning me before auto-filling). I submitted a comment on their feedback form letting them know, but I'm very surprised that Stripe would be involved and not help them avoid such a significant goof-up.
  - scottlinux 12y ago
    Eek - not naive. This is taking credit card information over HTTP (form submit is over HTTP) all on a Wordpress site via a Wordpress cart plugin.
  - 12y ago
jhspaybar 12y ago
Alternate Headline: Man vows to get money out of politics by throwing more money into politics One thing I really don't understand about this movement to get money out of politics is what the alternative is? No money in politics? Well clearly someone has to put money into politics or you'd never see signs up, you wouldn't see commercials, politicians wouldn't have websites to post their platforms on, etc. It seems to me like what people actually want is better politicians and the influence of money is the current reason to see politicians as poor. People have always hated politicians though, didn't we have Nixon before this big money kick? What about Herbert Hoover? Surely he'd be accused of some corporatist agenda today for his blunders. It seems to me if you don't like how politicians behave and are influenced that the solution is to reduce their power and influence. If, and it's a big if, money is the problem, the money will stop flowing if the benefit of spending it drops. The larger government gets, the more power we give our politicians, and the more beneficial spending that money becomes. Remove the incentives and this problem will fix itself. That probably means many more complaints about why we don't have specific social programs, research programs, defense budget and whatever else we spend money on, but it'll fix the issue of the influence of money.
- SideburnsOfDoom 12y ago
  Calling Lawrence Lessig "man", implying "some random guy" sells him very short. He has stature and form in this field. hint: try google and wikipedia
- acgourley 12y ago
  One popular alternative is to have $X campaign funds provided by the government to candidates with $Y levels of popular support.
  - ja30278 12y ago
    Begging the question of how candidates achieve the Y level of support. Either they are already well known figures (actors, athletes, etc), or they have to spend money to make themselves known.
rayiner 12y ago
This is admirable, but I don't think the rhetoric is realistic or effective. "Government has failed us. More than 90% of Americans link that failure to the influence of money in politics." Most Americans also think we spend 10x as much money on foreign aid than we do. The cause of the current economic malaise is a factual issue, not a matter of public opinion. I have a sincere question for the people who support Lessig's statement quoted above: how can America's current woes not be easily explained by deindustrialization and automation reducing the need for labor, thus putting labor in a disadvantageous position relative to capital? I go into CVS or Wal-Mart, and see everyone using automated checkout machines with a few cashiers hanging around in case anything goes wrong. Ten years ago, those didn't exist, and there would be a long row of cashiers. Is campaign finance really responsible for the woes of the middle and lower class, or is it technology (and other factors that make Americans of average skill more fungible)? I wonder if the focus on campaign financing doesn't mistake correlation for causation. I think people mistake the degree to political decisions are caused by the money, rather than the preferences being communicated through the money. For example, if you're a big corporation with hundreds of employees in a Congressman's district, you might advertise in support of him, to communicate the message that raising taxes will lead to reduced employment. What causes that Congressman to vote against raising taxes? The money that was spent, or the message that was communicated with that money? I guess the bottom line is that rich people and corporations don't need to bribe politicians. In the modern economy, where they can replace most workers with machines or outsource most work to China, or even renounce their citizenship and live as an expatriate in Hong Kong, they have all the leverage. They use the money to communicate their preferences to politicians afraid of contravening those preferences.
- scep12 12y ago
  Is technology really responsible for the woes of the middle and lower class, or is it the discretion of corporations that, after having saved capital with technology, choose to spend their profits elsewhere?
- humanrebar 12y ago
  Given the new facts on the ground about the relative strengths of capital and labor, a rethinking of the government-imposed incentive structure is in order. In general, we tax labor at a much higher rate than returns on investments. My preferred solution would be to stop taxing good things (income and investment) and start taxing not-so-good things (luxuries, frivolities, dangerous but legal products, etc.).
bhelx 12y ago
Do they want me to put my credit card and personal information in an insecure form? I'm trying to figure out if this form posts to a secure endpoint. I don't think it does.
- notme_ 12y ago
  http://mayone.us/distribution-plan/ http://mayone.us/distribution-plan/ " What payment processor do you use? Are my money and information safe? We have decided upon using Stripe as our payment processor. Stripe has offered us a very competitive rate (for which we thank them), and Stripe is compliant with PCI requirements and no sensitive data hits our servers. When you enter in your credit card information, it is not stored on the mayone.us site and goes directly to Stripe via the Stripe.js API. Or in short: Yes, your money and info are safe. "
  - deleted 12y ago
    [deleted]
  - bhelx 12y ago
    Yeah I read that. But it's strange, when I enter in information and hit "Pledge" it posts the fields to another insecure endpoint: http://mayone.us/wp-admin/admin-ajax.php http://mayone.us/wp-admin/admin-ajax.php Maybe I am missing something about how stripe works?
    - yahelc 12y ago
      https://stripe.com/help/ssl https://stripe.com/help/ssl > Do I need to use SSL on my payment pages? > Yes
      - bhelx 12y ago
        I'm concerned about why they are posting to THEIR own server to begin with. Even if they were using SSL, it seems like some kind of misuse of stripe.js
dskang 12y ago
PSA: You should wait to donate as your credit card information will be relayed unencrypted over HTTP on their donation page (http://mayone.us/fec_compliance/ http://mayone.us/fec_compliance/). I'm hoping they'll fix this soon. EDIT: They've added SSL, so go ahead and pledge!
- bhelx 12y ago
  They added SSL but it appears they are still making some kind of mistake. They claim to be using stripe.js (edit: http://mayone.us/distribution-plan/ http://mayone.us/distribution-plan/) which, as far as i know, creates a token so you don't have to send the credit card information over to your server protecting you from liability. It seems like they have still implemented it incorrectly. If you click "Pledge" it still sends the raw (albeit now encrypted) information to their wordpress server.
humanrebar 12y ago
As long as there are incentives to manipulate the political process, there will be money in politics, whether in the open or under the table. Money in politics has been a problem as long as there has been money and politics. If this Superpac is successful(1), it will only prove that throwing money at the right problem in the right way actually works. 1) Given that the major changes have lately been Supreme Court decisions, this may actually require an amendment to the Constitution, so I am extremely skeptical that success is possible.
protomyth 12y ago
Really, the big money corruption is the revolving door between lobbyists and politicians / staffers. Lobby to stop politicians / staffers from becoming lobbyists or accepting jobs with companies that contracted with the government for 5 years after they leave their position will do more to take the money out of politics than this does.
seivan 12y ago
What happens if you get backstabbed by these politicians? They tend to do that
denom 12y ago
It's interesting that this is coming at the same time as the push for a campaign finance amendment to the US Constitution. http://www.bostonglobe.com/news/nation/2014/04/30/john-paul-stevens-taking-another-run-putting-his-imprint-constitution/RkBFe4veWWMk0AiT3Pon5I/story.html http://www.bostonglobe.com/news/nation/2014/04/30/john-paul-... It's plausible $1-10 million could sway a few votes in the Senate if an amendment came to a vote.
cwal37 12y ago
I put together a little gif a few years ago (post Citizens United) to show some potential paths to anonymity for money in politics. I should really update it with dollar figures and some more detail, but I think it roughly gets the point across. http://i.imgur.com/Hjp1b.gif http://i.imgur.com/Hjp1b.gif
- humanrebar 12y ago
  Why shouldn't foreign nationals be able to make statements about U.S. political candidates?
ProAm 12y ago
He wants to "elect a large enough roster of congressmen and senators that they can pass meaningful campaign finance reform". Sounds like asking a wolf to feed on itself, I don't see this happening.
jpadkins 12y ago
campaign money is such a narrow factor in elections. While I think these efforts are well intentioned, they will not be effective. Billionaires buy media companies that lose money (Jeff Bezos is just the latest one). why? because they want to influence culture/elections/policy. The media has way more influence in elections than crappy ads. But I don't people running around talking about the 0.1% controlling the media in America or doing anything to address that. Here is the problem: Most voters are dumb / don't care. Rich people can spend money to influence dumb, apathetic people. Solve that problem and you can get money out of US politics. Focusing on campaign money / lobbyist jobs is just a microcosm of the problem, and will only result in the money being moved to other ways of influencing elections/policy (whack-a-mole). Show me a solution that prevents rich people from creating the stage for Bill O'Reilly and Rachel Madow.
rdl 12y ago
The irony of raising money for a SuperPAC to end SuperPACs...
Aloha 12y ago
I might be alone in this sentiment, but.. I dont have a problem with unlimited money in politics so long as there is daylight - If you want to spend money performing what amounts to electioneering, I think your name should go public with the amount of your donation. Daylight by far is the best nostrum for corruption.
dang 12y ago
We changed the url from http://boingboing.net/2014/05/01/mayday-larry-lessig-launches.html http://boingboing.net/2014/05/01/mayday-larry-lessig-launche....
tokenadult 12y ago
I decided to do a site-restricted Google search on Larry Lessig's tumblr to see if he has written recently on public choice theory.[1] There are no hits on his tumblr at all for "public choice," even though there are plenty of hits for his discussions of the influence of money on politics. I guess I went to a different law school, where we learned about public choice theory in a mandatory class in our first year. It's not so easy to fix public policy just by making something illegal that people are strongly motivated to do--a proposition that HN participants understand very well when we talk about drug policy, for instance. To better control the influence of people with a lot of money on a political system that also governs people who don't have much money takes a lot more than this SuperPAC. I'm not sure that it even represents me. [1] http://www.econlib.org/library/Enc/PublicChoice.html http://www.econlib.org/library/Enc/PublicChoice.html http://www.economist.com/news/finance-and-economics/21569692-james-buchanan-who-died-january-9th-illuminated-political-decision-making http://www.economist.com/news/finance-and-economics/21569692... http://www.sjsu.edu/faculty/watkins/publicchoice.htm http://www.sjsu.edu/faculty/watkins/publicchoice.htm http://www.econlib.org/library/Enc/PublicChoice.html http://www.econlib.org/library/Enc/PublicChoice.html
dskang 12y ago
I'm curious: Why was this post bumped off the front page so quickly? At the time of this comment, this post has 105 points, 79 comments, and was submitted 2 hours ago. Despite having more points and being younger than many posts on the front page, this post is on the second page. Is it due to the fact that this post is political in nature? I'm sure a lot of HNers who haven't been on the site in the past 2 hours would appreciate this submission, so it's unsettling to see that it's no longer on the front page.
godgod 12y ago
Commie pinkos.
slantedview 12y ago
For some more background on Lessig and his focus on campaign finance, check out his TED talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mw2z9lV3W1g https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mw2z9lV3W1g
avmich 12y ago
> And that’s the leap: It is impossibly hard to imagine raising $1 million in 30 days, even as a contingent commitment (meaning, you only get charged if we hit the goal). That's because America is a poor country, and doesn't really want democracy. Compare to Russia - no, compare to Moscow: http://navalny.livejournal.com/845180.html http://navalny.livejournal.com/845180.html 76 million (unrevocable) rubles in 2 months, with about 32 rubles per dollar exchange rate. Summer 2013, Moscow mayoral race. For the candidate opposing Putin regime.
canvia 12y ago
Has anyone ever done a statistical analysis of post voting patterns in political discussions to attempt to determine if any manipulation of the discourse might be occurring? Using non-public votes to determine comment rank seems like a ripe target for abuse since it can't be independently analyzed. I would love to see an outside audit of votes on a site like reddit to make sure there isn't corporate or political influence corrupting the exchange of ideas.

134 points by famousactress 12y ago

puppetmaster3 12y ago

Ha, ha. I too will throw stones into the ocean to get less water. Say hello to trillions of $.

Splendor 12y ago

Direct link: http://mayone.us/ http://mayone.us/

llamataboot 12y ago
This link just redirects to mayone.us/countdown/ for me now which has nothing on it except for a signup form...
- llamataboot 12y ago
  fixed now

r00fus 12y ago

I hope they have some big names lined up to launch their "moonshot".

cypherpunks01 12y ago

Lessig's 2011 book "Republic, Lost" is his first foray into the world of writing about politics. It's a fairly shocking read, and I enjoyed it quite a bit. I'm excited that he's partnering with a lot of great people to try and make campaign finance reform a reality.

higherpurpose 12y ago
His 1h talk about the contents of the book: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ik1AK56FtVc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ik1AK56FtVc

higherpurpose 12y ago

Money in politics is by far the biggest political issue, I'd say. It's the root cause of most evil in Congress. It's also the reason why Congress has so low approval rating (because they aren't listening to the People, but their few donors), and why they are so useless in terms of collaborating with each other, too. How can they collaborate for the "good of the people", when they come from a position of having to pass new legislation to protect the interests of their donors one way or another. When you look at it from this point of view, you realize why so many refuse to compromise on their positions. Maybe they could compromise on ideology a bit, especially if some solution seems to be getting the consensus approval, but it's a lot harder to compromise on what your donors want, and you have to deliver on their wishes if you want to keep the money coming to your re-election.

jws 12y ago

Sounds like they are testing the fund raising mechanism. The first goal is $1M in 30 days, the second is $5M in 30 more days. In both cases the funds will be matched, so they already have $6M near hand, and realistically there isn't that much more you can do with $12M that you can't do with $6M. I suspect May is to get the first little news articles in the press (Kickstarter meets Elections, underdog to use super pac against super pacs). The June goal is for the follow up articles that should get more widespread coverage. I'm all for putting campaign finance reform at the front of 2014 and 2016. I'm in. ###ALERT### Check for SSL before donating. As of now the page is not secured. Edit: Broken autofill on the donation page? Come on, make it easy. I had to type characters and access my memory to make this happen instead of just clicking.

gavinpc 12y ago
Also, it is just me or is the donation page using HTTP instead of HTTPS? Maybe naive, but that's a showstopper for me.
- jws 12y ago
  You are right! Hope no one was listening when I made my donation. If you try to use SSL you will find a certificate mismatch with the host as well. Ok. Don't donate, put a reminder in your planner to come back and try to change the world next week.
- DEinspanjer 12y ago
  Yeah, I was going to donate but stopped as soon as I realized that (Thanks LastPass for warning me before auto-filling). I submitted a comment on their feedback form letting them know, but I'm very surprised that Stripe would be involved and not help them avoid such a significant goof-up.
- scottlinux 12y ago
  Eek - not naive. This is taking credit card information over HTTP (form submit is over HTTP) all on a Wordpress site via a Wordpress cart plugin.
- 12y ago

jhspaybar 12y ago

Alternate Headline: Man vows to get money out of politics by throwing more money into politics One thing I really don't understand about this movement to get money out of politics is what the alternative is? No money in politics? Well clearly someone has to put money into politics or you'd never see signs up, you wouldn't see commercials, politicians wouldn't have websites to post their platforms on, etc. It seems to me like what people actually want is better politicians and the influence of money is the current reason to see politicians as poor. People have always hated politicians though, didn't we have Nixon before this big money kick? What about Herbert Hoover? Surely he'd be accused of some corporatist agenda today for his blunders. It seems to me if you don't like how politicians behave and are influenced that the solution is to reduce their power and influence. If, and it's a big if, money is the problem, the money will stop flowing if the benefit of spending it drops. The larger government gets, the more power we give our politicians, and the more beneficial spending that money becomes. Remove the incentives and this problem will fix itself. That probably means many more complaints about why we don't have specific social programs, research programs, defense budget and whatever else we spend money on, but it'll fix the issue of the influence of money.

SideburnsOfDoom 12y ago
Calling Lawrence Lessig "man", implying "some random guy" sells him very short. He has stature and form in this field. hint: try google and wikipedia
acgourley 12y ago
One popular alternative is to have $X campaign funds provided by the government to candidates with $Y levels of popular support.
- ja30278 12y ago
  Begging the question of how candidates achieve the Y level of support. Either they are already well known figures (actors, athletes, etc), or they have to spend money to make themselves known.

rayiner 12y ago

This is admirable, but I don't think the rhetoric is realistic or effective. "Government has failed us. More than 90% of Americans link that failure to the influence of money in politics." Most Americans also think we spend 10x as much money on foreign aid than we do. The cause of the current economic malaise is a factual issue, not a matter of public opinion. I have a sincere question for the people who support Lessig's statement quoted above: how can America's current woes not be easily explained by deindustrialization and automation reducing the need for labor, thus putting labor in a disadvantageous position relative to capital? I go into CVS or Wal-Mart, and see everyone using automated checkout machines with a few cashiers hanging around in case anything goes wrong. Ten years ago, those didn't exist, and there would be a long row of cashiers. Is campaign finance really responsible for the woes of the middle and lower class, or is it technology (and other factors that make Americans of average skill more fungible)? I wonder if the focus on campaign financing doesn't mistake correlation for causation. I think people mistake the degree to political decisions are caused by the money, rather than the preferences being communicated through the money. For example, if you're a big corporation with hundreds of employees in a Congressman's district, you might advertise in support of him, to communicate the message that raising taxes will lead to reduced employment. What causes that Congressman to vote against raising taxes? The money that was spent, or the message that was communicated with that money? I guess the bottom line is that rich people and corporations don't need to bribe politicians. In the modern economy, where they can replace most workers with machines or outsource most work to China, or even renounce their citizenship and live as an expatriate in Hong Kong, they have all the leverage. They use the money to communicate their preferences to politicians afraid of contravening those preferences.

scep12 12y ago
Is technology really responsible for the woes of the middle and lower class, or is it the discretion of corporations that, after having saved capital with technology, choose to spend their profits elsewhere?
humanrebar 12y ago
Given the new facts on the ground about the relative strengths of capital and labor, a rethinking of the government-imposed incentive structure is in order. In general, we tax labor at a much higher rate than returns on investments. My preferred solution would be to stop taxing good things (income and investment) and start taxing not-so-good things (luxuries, frivolities, dangerous but legal products, etc.).

bhelx 12y ago

Do they want me to put my credit card and personal information in an insecure form? I'm trying to figure out if this form posts to a secure endpoint. I don't think it does.

notme_ 12y ago
http://mayone.us/distribution-plan/ http://mayone.us/distribution-plan/ " What payment processor do you use? Are my money and information safe? We have decided upon using Stripe as our payment processor. Stripe has offered us a very competitive rate (for which we thank them), and Stripe is compliant with PCI requirements and no sensitive data hits our servers. When you enter in your credit card information, it is not stored on the mayone.us site and goes directly to Stripe via the Stripe.js API. Or in short: Yes, your money and info are safe. "
- deleted 12y ago
  [deleted]
- bhelx 12y ago
  Yeah I read that. But it's strange, when I enter in information and hit "Pledge" it posts the fields to another insecure endpoint: http://mayone.us/wp-admin/admin-ajax.php http://mayone.us/wp-admin/admin-ajax.php Maybe I am missing something about how stripe works?
  - yahelc 12y ago
    https://stripe.com/help/ssl https://stripe.com/help/ssl > Do I need to use SSL on my payment pages? > Yes
    - bhelx 12y ago
      I'm concerned about why they are posting to THEIR own server to begin with. Even if they were using SSL, it seems like some kind of misuse of stripe.js

dskang 12y ago

PSA: You should wait to donate as your credit card information will be relayed unencrypted over HTTP on their donation page (http://mayone.us/fec_compliance/ http://mayone.us/fec_compliance/). I'm hoping they'll fix this soon. EDIT: They've added SSL, so go ahead and pledge!

bhelx 12y ago
They added SSL but it appears they are still making some kind of mistake. They claim to be using stripe.js (edit: http://mayone.us/distribution-plan/ http://mayone.us/distribution-plan/) which, as far as i know, creates a token so you don't have to send the credit card information over to your server protecting you from liability. It seems like they have still implemented it incorrectly. If you click "Pledge" it still sends the raw (albeit now encrypted) information to their wordpress server.

humanrebar 12y ago

As long as there are incentives to manipulate the political process, there will be money in politics, whether in the open or under the table. Money in politics has been a problem as long as there has been money and politics. If this Superpac is successful(1), it will only prove that throwing money at the right problem in the right way actually works. 1) Given that the major changes have lately been Supreme Court decisions, this may actually require an amendment to the Constitution, so I am extremely skeptical that success is possible.

protomyth 12y ago

Really, the big money corruption is the revolving door between lobbyists and politicians / staffers. Lobby to stop politicians / staffers from becoming lobbyists or accepting jobs with companies that contracted with the government for 5 years after they leave their position will do more to take the money out of politics than this does.

seivan 12y ago

What happens if you get backstabbed by these politicians? They tend to do that

denom 12y ago

It's interesting that this is coming at the same time as the push for a campaign finance amendment to the US Constitution. http://www.bostonglobe.com/news/nation/2014/04/30/john-paul-stevens-taking-another-run-putting-his-imprint-constitution/RkBFe4veWWMk0AiT3Pon5I/story.html http://www.bostonglobe.com/news/nation/2014/04/30/john-paul-... It's plausible $1-10 million could sway a few votes in the Senate if an amendment came to a vote.

cwal37 12y ago

I put together a little gif a few years ago (post Citizens United) to show some potential paths to anonymity for money in politics. I should really update it with dollar figures and some more detail, but I think it roughly gets the point across. http://i.imgur.com/Hjp1b.gif http://i.imgur.com/Hjp1b.gif

humanrebar 12y ago
Why shouldn't foreign nationals be able to make statements about U.S. political candidates?

ProAm 12y ago

He wants to "elect a large enough roster of congressmen and senators that they can pass meaningful campaign finance reform". Sounds like asking a wolf to feed on itself, I don't see this happening.

jpadkins 12y ago

campaign money is such a narrow factor in elections. While I think these efforts are well intentioned, they will not be effective. Billionaires buy media companies that lose money (Jeff Bezos is just the latest one). why? because they want to influence culture/elections/policy. The media has way more influence in elections than crappy ads. But I don't people running around talking about the 0.1% controlling the media in America or doing anything to address that. Here is the problem: Most voters are dumb / don't care. Rich people can spend money to influence dumb, apathetic people. Solve that problem and you can get money out of US politics. Focusing on campaign money / lobbyist jobs is just a microcosm of the problem, and will only result in the money being moved to other ways of influencing elections/policy (whack-a-mole). Show me a solution that prevents rich people from creating the stage for Bill O'Reilly and Rachel Madow.

rdl 12y ago

The irony of raising money for a SuperPAC to end SuperPACs...

Aloha 12y ago

I might be alone in this sentiment, but.. I dont have a problem with unlimited money in politics so long as there is daylight - If you want to spend money performing what amounts to electioneering, I think your name should go public with the amount of your donation. Daylight by far is the best nostrum for corruption.

dang 12y ago

We changed the url from http://boingboing.net/2014/05/01/mayday-larry-lessig-launches.html http://boingboing.net/2014/05/01/mayday-larry-lessig-launche....

tokenadult 12y ago

I decided to do a site-restricted Google search on Larry Lessig's tumblr to see if he has written recently on public choice theory.[1] There are no hits on his tumblr at all for "public choice," even though there are plenty of hits for his discussions of the influence of money on politics. I guess I went to a different law school, where we learned about public choice theory in a mandatory class in our first year. It's not so easy to fix public policy just by making something illegal that people are strongly motivated to do--a proposition that HN participants understand very well when we talk about drug policy, for instance. To better control the influence of people with a lot of money on a political system that also governs people who don't have much money takes a lot more than this SuperPAC. I'm not sure that it even represents me. [1] http://www.econlib.org/library/Enc/PublicChoice.html http://www.econlib.org/library/Enc/PublicChoice.html http://www.economist.com/news/finance-and-economics/21569692-james-buchanan-who-died-january-9th-illuminated-political-decision-making http://www.economist.com/news/finance-and-economics/21569692... http://www.sjsu.edu/faculty/watkins/publicchoice.htm http://www.sjsu.edu/faculty/watkins/publicchoice.htm http://www.econlib.org/library/Enc/PublicChoice.html http://www.econlib.org/library/Enc/PublicChoice.html

dskang 12y ago

I'm curious: Why was this post bumped off the front page so quickly? At the time of this comment, this post has 105 points, 79 comments, and was submitted 2 hours ago. Despite having more points and being younger than many posts on the front page, this post is on the second page. Is it due to the fact that this post is political in nature? I'm sure a lot of HNers who haven't been on the site in the past 2 hours would appreciate this submission, so it's unsettling to see that it's no longer on the front page.

godgod 12y ago

Commie pinkos.

slantedview 12y ago

For some more background on Lessig and his focus on campaign finance, check out his TED talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mw2z9lV3W1g https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mw2z9lV3W1g

avmich 12y ago

> And that’s the leap: It is impossibly hard to imagine raising $1 million in 30 days, even as a contingent commitment (meaning, you only get charged if we hit the goal). That's because America is a poor country, and doesn't really want democracy. Compare to Russia - no, compare to Moscow: http://navalny.livejournal.com/845180.html http://navalny.livejournal.com/845180.html 76 million (unrevocable) rubles in 2 months, with about 32 rubles per dollar exchange rate. Summer 2013, Moscow mayoral race. For the candidate opposing Putin regime.

canvia 12y ago

Has anyone ever done a statistical analysis of post voting patterns in political discussions to attempt to determine if any manipulation of the discourse might be occurring? Using non-public votes to determine comment rank seems like a ripe target for abuse since it can't be independently analyzed. I would love to see an outside audit of votes on a site like reddit to make sure there isn't corporate or political influence corrupting the exchange of ideas.