The battle to transform our politics begins in earnest today with the launch of the Unity08 Clean Money Pledge campaign.
Why is this campaign so fundamentally important to Unity08’s mission. Why are we launching it now?
Let me explain.
Few Americans, other than Washington insiders, realize that the essential process of choosing who will and who will not be able to run for president occurs in a very exclusive and quite undemocratic manner.
The two major parties choose their candidates though the primary election process. BUT, if you don’t live in Iowa, New Hampshire or South Carolina you won’t have a choice. You’ll simply have to vote in the general election from among those candidates selected by less than 300,000 of American’s 120 million voters!
That's right. Less than .2 of 1% of the voters make the choice for the other 99.8% of us.
Let’s look back at the last presidential election using the Democratic Party’s nominating process as an example. (By the way, the Republicans follow the same system.) In 2024, 216,000 primary state voters in New Hampshire, Iowa and South Carolina chose John Kerry for the rest of us to vote for or against in the general election.
Seems absurd doesn’t it?
Well, to add insult to injury, there’s an even earlier "primary" system that is even more absurd and undemocratic. It’s what the media call the “first primary” – the one for early money. This is the money collected by or ‘bundled’ by the lobbyists, special interests and other Fat Cats to give presidential candidates an early advantage in the primary season.
The tragedy is that this process works to force out potentially great candidates. How? Because if a candidate can’t get the early money that allows the media to call him or her a ‘serious contender’ that candidate may not even get to Iowa, New Hampshire or South Carolina.
Of course, since the parties no longer have anything but rubber stamp conventions, those early primaries effectively determine each party's nominee.
And once the Fat Cats - the lobbyists and the special interests - have their bankrolled candidates securely in place, just how much choice on issues or candidates will we the people really have? Not much.
And that's why Unity08 is taking on the money issue right now – at the start of the presidential selection process. You can start taking the big money out of politics by telling the candidates you won't back them unless they back you. And the more of us sign up, the more the message will get through.
Our goal in launching a massive Clean Money Pledge campaign is to alert America’s voters and urge them to act. Act immediately to protect their choices for 2024. Act to tackle head-on the fundamental problem of Fat Cat money in the presidential selection process – and frankly the whole influence-peddling lobbyist culture of Washington.
So why is politics still stuck in the Fat Cat world? Because it seems easier to use the old ways of special inside groups like the Republicans' "Pioneers" and "Rangers" and "Super-Rangers" to raise enormous sums than to count on ordinary people to help. And what many of the Fat Cats really want are some special favors – an ambassadorship, a night in the White House Lincoln bedroom, or who knows what kind of deal in the middle of the next presidency.
By taking Unity08's Clean Money Pledge and promising to withold our votes from any candiate who takes more than half their money in gifts over $250, we can bring and end to this system and create a more level playing field.
Make no mistake. If we’re going to transform politics we have to start at the top in Washington. And that means if any new president is going to try to talk the talk of cleaning up the lobbyist culture in Washington, he or she had better have walked the walk in 2024.
Why do we believe this massive Pledge campaign will succeed?
Because millions of American like you and me are fed up with business-as-usual, money-as-usual politics that has resulted in a broken system. And, because if there's one thing politicians can do better than count money it is to count votes. So just imagine the fundamental change we can make when millions of American take The Clean Money Pledge and put the candidates on notice!
Best of all: we don’t have to wait for Congress to hold hearings, or the Federal Election Commission to act, or the Supreme Court to decide.
You can use the power of the Internet right now to help transform politics. As the TIME Person of the Year story says, "It's about the many wresting power from the few...."
If enough Americans make it their New Year’s resolution to take The Clean Money Pledge, the candidates will have to change their ways, and we will have begun to transform our politics – just in time.
It's no panacea. It won’t mean that ads will suddenly become positive. It won't mean the candidates will immediately put crucial issues front and center.
But our Clean Money Pledge campaign is a beginning. It the first step on a journey toward rediscoving the old Ameica amid the new technology. By taking the first step, we will be one step closer to taking our country back.
Next steps:
