Building a Digital Wave to Get Money Out

Mike & Friends Blog

Dylan Ratigan

Dylan Ratigan hosts Morning Meeting with Dylan Ratigan on MSNBC and the Dylan Ratigan Show Sundays on WABC Radio

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September 29th, 2011 2:18 AM

Building a Digital Wave to Get Money Out

Yesterday we announced the formation of a petition to get money out of our political system, and a draft amendment to the Constitution that will do it.

More than 27,000 people signed up in less than 9 hours, our servers were overwhelmed and in one day the petition accrued more signatures than any petition filed to the President's We The People website to date. This is clear evidence that while we may debate mechanics and ideas a huge number of us share a single common value and goal. To Get Money Out.

You can join us here: http://www.getmoneyout.com

And here's a FAQ on our amendment draft and why it works.

How do we convert this wave of frustration and anger into positive action? And how do we do it without falling into the trap of rooting for political and media heroes and villains - when ALL of us are the only ones that can do this?

Many call for a heroic politician to stand up and lead. But this issue, which creates a seemingly impenetrable wall or "Green Curtain" of money -- can only be solved outside the government.

Here's why: Money in politics is like a suicide vest of money on every politician. If any one tries to remove it, all the others exploit the decision and the courageous soul loses their job (94% of the time money determines winners). The ONLY way to remove all the suicide money vests is to take all of them off ALL AT ONCE. (On 3 if you will :))

Last night Congresswoman Donna Edwards reached out on Twitter to support our efforts and she acknowledged that the only way get money out is all at once.

We can only do this by building an outside massive, unrelenting digital wave that can break with a singular focus on both our Congress and State Legislature -- until an amendment to the Constitution is passed to Get Money Out. (For those who scoff, we amended the Constitution TWICE over beer.) Imagine the difference on my MSNBC show between me as a talking head asking about money in politics and 100k people, plus me or 250k, or 1 million who simply want to Get Money Out.

This morning, Politico's Dave Levinthal asked Jimmy and me if starting with a Constitutional amendment was too ambitious. I responded by pointing out that you never want to take a boat out of the harbor until you know where you are going. Our goal is to make the singular focus the issue of Getting Money Out a point of direct engagement in next year's Presidential election.

As for the Amendment draft itself, it is based on what I call "NCAA" rules. Just as it is an offense for a college basketball player to accept money or gifts, so too must it be for politicians and campaigns. This will force the necessary debate public funding and other campaign structures.

Until we get money out we can't address the corrupt structures that prevail over health, energy, education, defense, trade and banking. And until we do that we will suffer massive poverty, resource loss, anger and frustration. But we can harness all of that to alter the structure through simple singular focus, modern and traditional media, the web and our own personal resolve.

So join us: GetMoneyOut.com