House Democrats to propose ban on lawmaker stock trading – report
Lawrence Lessig (Harvard law professor famous for fighting for sane copyright law) does a great presentation on the root cause of Americas problems. He also ran for president in 2016.<p>It can be watched here: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJy8vTu66tE" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJy8vTu66tE</a><p>The short version is that to win primaries you need money. Money mainly comes from corporations and rich people. Taking money from corporations and rich people creates a relationship where you have some loyalty to them or they can punish you if you don't act how they want. Thus the primary corrupting force in America is pro-corruption campaign finance laws.<p>The test for democracy is whether elected politicians pass legislation that the public at large wishes to be passed. Our very own Princeton did a study to answer this question.<p>The key finding: “The preferences of the average American appear to have only a miniscule, near-zero, statistically non-significant impact upon public policy.”[1]<p>In a very real, non hyperbolic sense we are in a plutocracy where money rules. We are not a democracy due chiefly to our campaign finance laws.<p>Here is a campaign that aims to work on this:
<a href="https://act.represent.us/sign/problempoll-fba/" rel="nofollow">https://act.represent.us/sign/problempoll-fba/</a><p>[1] <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/perspectives-on-politics/article/testing-theories-of-american-politics-elites-interest-groups-and-average-citizens/62327F513959D0A304D4893B382B992B" rel="nofollow">https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/perspectives-on-poli...</a>