The initial plan for VoteNo2BigDough as described below is a work in progress and therefore subject to change.
VoteNo2BigDough as a Going Concern Does, and Does Not as Follows:
Develops a Statement of non-corruption practices that Congressional candidates can publicly commit to follow during both primary and general electoral campaigns, and also while serving in office.
Recruits candidates during the primary, candidate selection stage to pledge to abide by the Statement, and publicizes lists of all candidates for each Congressional seat that is in play, noting which candidates have and have not pledged
Monitors candidates and office holders’ compliance with the Statement and publicizes deviations
Solicits voters to pledge to limit their votes, volunteer efforts, and contributions to only pledged candidates
Publicizes what VoteNo2BigDough is, does and why
Promotes comity among pledged candidates of all parties
Funds its start-up and work with modest donations from flesh and blood US citizens
Does not advocate on any issues except those regarding corruption, qualified voter access and electoral fairness
There’s more detail on each of these below. When VoteNo2BigDough is initially stood up, the focus will be on the US Congress. However the organizational infrastructure will be designed with eventual state-level activity in mind. These will begin when people who are enthused about the VoteNo2BigDough’s mission come forward to become the founding core of state affiliate organizations.
Here’s what VoteNo2BigDough seeks to accomplish:
Educate people about systemic corruption and how it pervades the US government in the 21st century
Convince the people the founders’ fear of corruption as the lethal threat to democracy has come to pass
Connect the dots among Big Doughners, Congress and systemic corruption
Illuminate the fact Big Doughnations are toxic to democracy
Make accepting toxic donations the body odor of politics
Show voters that both major party caucuses pursue the same hidden agenda set by the Big Doughner class
Persuade couch and nose-pinching voters a ballot mark for candidates who accept Big Doughnations is a vote for the status quo
Convince couch and nose-pinching voters they can make a difference by pledging to vote only for pledged candidates
Elect ever more pledged candidates of major and peripheral parties to Congress and the Senate
Encourage pledged Congress members and Senators to work together to fight corruption
When a critical mass of pledged members of all parties is reached, encourage all of them to form an anti-corruption caucus and to play hardball when negotiating with Big Doughner party establishments to organize the body.
We should not have any illusions the success of this effort is guaranteed. Far from it. The resignation to the status quo of systemic corruption among many American people must be over come. On the other hand VoteNo2BigDough is the kind of thing that could unexpectedly and quickly go viral. As it gains traction it can expect push back from the status quo, and the more and faster it gains the nastier will be the opposition. But we owe it to both preceding and succeeding generations to do what we can to restore a functional democracy to America.
The Antisystemic Corruption Statement
There are five pieces in the anti-corruption Statement to which candidates must agree:
They will not accept corruptive donations
They will place personal and family financial assets in a blind trust or similar vehicle during the campaign and if elected
When their term of service in Congress ends they will not monetize their legislative experience until at least N years have passed since the day they left office
While in office they will not “dial for dollars” on behalf of candidates and office holders who have not pledged, nor will they do so for party organizations that have not formally and publicly adopted the pledge
They will make fighting corruption a central tenet of their campaign, and if elected will work with pledged members of all parties to do so
A key item to be addressed at the outset is what does and does not constitute a corruptive donation. Also, a process will be put in place to periodically review and reassess those parameters. Similarly the terms of the blind trust will take some spelling out. The overall objective of these provisions is to shield candidates and office holders from the temptation to take into consideration her own personal and campaign financial situations when faced with decisions to support or oppose bills that comes before the legislative body. These tasks will require significant support from lawyers deeply experienced in Constitutional and electoral law.
Recruiting Candidates to Pledge
Recruiting candidates to VoteNo2BigDough will begin as early in an election cycle as possible in the parties’ primary, candidate selection phase. Initially VoteNo2BigDough will consider candidates who are in good standing in their communities with some exceptions. Exceptions might include candidates who personally, or by party affiliation are:
Overtly exclusionary (e.g. racist, theocratic, etc.)
Advocates of or associated with violence
Possessors of personal or family wealth above a threshold set by VoteNo2BigDough (e.g. high six or very low seven figures)
Seeking office in a district egregiously gerrymandered by the candidate’s party
A record of participating in corruptive practices while previously in elective or appointive office (e.g. promoting gerrymandering, improper voter registration, and/or voter suppression while a member of a state legislature or political appointment, etc.)
Incumbent members of the House of Representatives or the Senate will not be considered except in the following circumstances: they are on record of speaking out on systemic corruption on several occasions; they contact VoteNo2BigDough unsolicited. Any and all candidates for a specific office who pledge to abide by VoteNo2BigDough’s Statement will be on the movement’s “Approved” list for that office. Because more than one candidate may be listed, acceptance of the candidate’s pledge by VoteNo2BigDough does not constitute an endorsement in the usual sense.
Monitors candidates and office holders’ compliance
VoteNo2BigDough will use resources such as opensecrets.org, etc. to monitor pledged candidates’ compliance with the Statement and publicize any deviations. Per the fifth bullet in the above section on the anti-corruption Statement, pledged legislators will fight attempts by the status quo Congress to enact laws that shield campaign finance data from public view.
Solicits citizens to pledge to vote and work for only pledged candidates
Voter turnouts in off-presidential year Congressional elections in recent decades have been disappointingly low. The elections themselves have generally been indecisive, frequently flipping control of the Houses from one party to the other and back by narrow margins. Terrabytes of text have been written analyzing and theorizing about why this is the case. But for people who are not enamored with either Big Doughner party, and who have flipped back and forth from red to blue and back for decades, and who personally are experiencing the acceleration instead of the turnaround of the society’s ride on the road to perdition, it’s hard not to ask themselves, “Why bother voting?” These are the people VoteNo2BigDough most needs to energize to disrupt business as usual of the two major parties. VoteNo2BigDough also needs to attract people who lean toward one of the two legacy parties. Because of the Bernie Bro phenomenon I suspect it will be quite successful doing so among those tilting toward the Democrats. As for the Republicans, it’s harder to predict because Trump. The most success, at least initially, will likely be achieved among peripheral party candidates. It’s much easier to eschew Big Doughner money when you don’t expect to get much if any of it in the first place.
People will be encouraged to sign up for VoteNo2BigDough’s email list before they decide whether or not to pledge. To make pledges they will have to provide their real names and physical addresses, as well as their Congressional districts. Some states have websites where a person can plug in a physical address and receive back the Congressional and state legislative districts, candidate lists and where to vote. Where feasible links to these will be available in VoteNo2BigDough’s website.
No personal data or other information collected from vote pledgers and email list subscribers will be sold. There will be an option to have your name displayed in relation to a pledged candidate in your state or district, but that will opt-in, not the default. The data will be used only for internal purposes and for aggregating and publishing the total numbers of people who have pledged for each Congressional and Senate seat in play in an election cycle.
Publicizes what VoteNo2BigDough is, does and why
It goes without saying that a Movement that seeks to arouse the public to take action opposing a lethal threat needs people with public relations skills. It’s also safe to say a Movement that takes on the status quo deep pockets of the 21st century USA will receive precious little coverage by and access to traditional establishment media. Initially VoteNo2BigDough may be below the censoring radar of monopolistic social media platforms but as gains some traction the movement will almost will encounter shadow-banning et al. Therefore various modes of guerrilla marketing will have to be employed. This is another area where experienced expertise is needed. Because of these obstacles to access to traditional and social media it is important to encourage pledgers and readers to spread the word about VoteNo2BigDough among the people in their personal networks.
A crucial element of the PR messaging must be to educate the public on what systemic corruption is and how it is preventing the governing process from delivering hugely popular programs. In doing so it’s also crucially important not to demonize individual members of the House and the Senate. At most, long serving Congress Critters should be depicted as people who had the realism to succeed in the system as they encountered it on a day-to-day basis, and to decide, either explicitly or tacitly, that the system couldn’t or shouldn’t be changed.
There is a chicken-egg issue that will be faced as VoteNo2BigDough is being stood up. Considering resources will be very limited at the outset, is it more important to begin by focusing on informing and getting pledges from voters or candidate? I lean toward the voters on the grounds major party candidates won’t take VoteNo2BigDough seriously until a significant number of voters have pledged. Perhaps while the initial primary focus is on voters, a secondary effort should be directed to the candidates of peripheral parties. They will be an easier sell and having some candidates on board early will help build credibility among voters.
Promotes comity among pledged candidates of all parties
Unlike in days gone by, it is reported there has been very little good will and cooperation in recent Congresses except when it comes to enacting Big Doughners’ agenda items. When a critical mass of pledged members of both major parties are in Congress it’s likely VoteNo2BigDough will have an office in Washington. That office should provide a space where pledged members can meet to discuss anti-corruption strategy and other issues, as well as to just get to know each other socially and begin to rebuild the cross-party comity that was once common in Congress.
Funds its start-up and work with modest donations from US citizens
Recent examples such as Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaigns and the PanQuake social medium project have shown that crowd-funding can raise considerable amounts of money. VoteNo2BigDough should be able to do the same, and be able to accept both one-time and sustaining donations. Once it is up and running it may be appropriate to establish an annual limit on donations from one person in order to becoming dependent on one or a small group of contributors. If it is necessary to rely on some large donations to get VoteNo2BigDough off the ground, the founding directors should make sure the donors are fully onboard with VoteNo2BigDough’s mission as stated in its founding documents.
Is Non-partisan and advocates only on issues regarding corruption and electoral fairness
In order to be effective in its mission VoteNo2BigDough must be rigorously non-partisan. At first it’s likely it will have more more success recruiting both candidates and voters from one major party vis a vis the other. If early results show this is the case it is essential VoteNo2BigDough be prepared redouble recruiting efforts on the voters and prospective candidates of the other party. Once a critical mass of swing voters perceives VoteNo2BigDough is biased its effective in their eyes will be greatly diminished and difficult to recover from.
Conclusion
Well, there you have it folks. A proposal for a movement to turn around the systemic corruption of the United State Congress – systemic corruption of the kind our founders feared might eventually destroy democracy. Left unaddressed, it probably will.
Obviously well informed but I would think the fall of Russia and the mad scrabble to steal all the resources followed by an influx of American cash into Ukraine. Then maybe how the US govt spent our money to overthrow the Ukrainian govt and install actual fascists..
Also, maybe how those fascists have been bombing and choking off east Ukraines' supply chain.... all backed by our dollars.