Disappeared News

“In theory politicians are elected to serve in the best of interests of their constituents, but in practice, monetary contributions often clout this focus. Even after election cycle campaign contributions wind down, corporations continue lobbying the politicians that they helped put into office to have them vote in their best interests.”

I was wondering what the hashtag #Rootstrikers was about—it seems to be all over Twitter now that the focus has left Boston. Well, there’s this website… and a conference in San Francisco which is happening now. Today. At this moment. (see below)

And they’re starting off right. Check out the splash screen to the right, and repeat after me: “Our government is corrupt.”

Again: “Our government is corrupt.”  They say that if something is repeated often enough, people will believe it. So practice that phrase.

The splash screen clarifies:

Our government is corrupt. Not corrupt in any criminal sense, but corrupt in a perfectly legal sense: special interests bend the levers of power to benefit them at the expense of the rest of us.

The Rootstrikers web page from which the pull-quote at the top was snipped is here. It states their mission:

Join the outsider's movement to get money out of politics and restore government to the people.

The Conference to Restore the Republic webpage is here, and it is happening as I type this. They’re streaming the video, and I hope it will be posted later, ‘cause I’d love to be there, but can’t. Streaming video is a great invention, isn’t it?

The speaker right now is introducing a panel, and she just noted that our access to democracy depends on our access to wealth. How true, sadly true. The panel will be on voting rights. Next will be Corporate Personhood, and then the keynote address by Lawrence Lessig. Check the website for the schedule.

Here in Hawaii money certainly talks, but we also have strength in numbers. The trick will be to figure out how to regain our democracy before developers pave the place over.

Ok, I’m going over to the conference video.

Permalink posted by Larry @ 4/20/2013 08:54:00 AM