Spread the message, help build support to get money out of politics.
Spread the message, help build support to get money out of politics.
So I met with Ben Cohen of Ben & Jerry's fame a few months ago as he was passing through the Bay Area, and we chatted about lots of things over lunch. But chief among them was his latest project,
StampStampede.org, an effort to literally stamp cash with political messages to generate support for the overturning of
Citizens United.
The idea is ingenuous: Ben's organization sells these stamps at cost, and you use them to stamp all your dollar bills before recirculating them into the local economy. Every time that cash passes hands, the recipient is exposed to the anti-Citizens United message. It's a great, direct way to spread the word.
Believe it or not, this is perfectly legal, and each stamp will be seen by an average of 875 people. It's a great way to spread the message beyond liberal circles like this one. And it's a message worth sharing, considering
this craziness:
Fewer than four hundred families are responsible for almost half the money raised in the 2016 presidential campaign, a concentration of political donors that is unprecedented in the modern era [...]
“The question is whether we are in a new Gilded Age or well beyond it — to a Platinum Age,” said Michael J. Malbin, president of the Campaign Finance Institute, which tracks the flow of campaign money.
I vote for "well beyond it." Dear god has it moved beyond it.
That's why I dig this, and no, neither Daily Kos nor I are getting paid for this. I just really dig what Ben is doing, and I think this is a really innovative way to spread an important message. So check them out! And let's educate Americans about the pernicious effect of money in our politics, one stamp at a time.
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