(as seen on www.pacmen.org, Facebook, Twitter, & Wordpress)
In a sense, our name says it all.
We are regular, everyday, non-billionaire, non-lobbyist, people. We are fighting against two problems that we consider to be at the root of many other problems in the United States.
In a sense, our name says it all.
We are regular, everyday, non-billionaire, non-lobbyist, people. We are fighting against two problems that we consider to be at the root of many other problems in the United States.
The first of these problems is the corporate manipulation of elections. Our current election financing system allows billionaires and corporations to spend unlimited amounts of money influencing the opinions of voters and the policies of politicians.
For example, Karl Rove has organized a political group called American Crossroads. They spent $38,675,723 in the 2010 election cycle. Amongst the money which was not donated anonymously, 91% was funded by Billionaires.
There are many other groups like Rove's. We feel that this system has created a fundamental shift in who holds the power in our political process. When elections are decided by billionaires and corporations, it is an injustice to the will of the people.
The second of these problems is the corporate manipulation of news. Few exceptions aside, the right wing media has long moved beyond merely having a conservative bias. They have consistently and systematically manipulated information, changing facts to create a false reality which more conveniently conforms to their ideology. Further, they have taken no responsibility for saying, reporting, or writing things that are proven beyond a reasonable doubt to be false.
Our mission in regards to these issues is threefold:
Educate the public about these issues.
Expose the groups that are responsible for creating manipulative election and news information.
Change the systems that allow these abuses to occur.
Achieving The Solutions
1
Educate The Public About These Issues.
Education is power. Informing the public about the manipulation of elections and news is the first step towards curtailing it. We have already begun to provide detailed information about these issues through our website, blog, and social media outlets. In the coming months, we plan on creating "Youtube" ads which we hope to some day be able to run on TV. We will also be releasing several other forms of multimedia related to our causes.
2
Expose The Groups That Are Responsible For Creating Manipulative Election And News Information.
Leading up to the 2012 election cycle, and during the election cycle, there will be slews and slews of misinformation and manipulation coming from shady right-wing outside spending groups. These groups are designed to appear like they are broad coalitions of regular people coming together for a cause. In reality, most are financed by billionaires and corporations. When these groups run manipulative ads in the 2012 election cycle, we will be there with information about the groups' funding, history, and agendas.
3
Change The Systems That Allow These Abuses.
The best way to strengthen our election finance laws and to stop misinformation in the media is to elect lawmakers who share our dissain for the systems which allow misinformation to run rampant. In the 2012 election cycle, we will donate to candidates who will fight to change our broken systems of election finance and news information.