We need a way to use the big money spent on campaigns to trigger a negative response in the minds of voters. We need people, when they see an ad repeatedly, to think,
"Wow, someone is sure spending a lot of money to get this guy elected. What are they buying? Is this politician already bought and paid for?"
I have been thinking about this for a long time, and then today, at lunch, a co worker came into the lunch room and began talking about all the signs around town for the upcoming election. Please follow me below the fold to see what she said.
She told us that she was NOT going to vote for candidates with big fancy signs or those who have signs everywhere. She said "I don't trust people who have so much money to spend on their election." This woman is not one to align with those of us in the office who are progressive activists (there are a cluster of us, it's a biggish office). But she is able to see the connection between money spent on campaigns and how that influences the candidates voting.
I believe this is a teachable moment for Americans. Recent events have made blatant corporate corruption visible to many people. Now is the time to use this awareness in a concerted effort. We need to permeate the air with suspicion and distrust for heavily funded candidates. We need to make the tangible reality of the spending be the message. We need to generate outrage for the flagrant buying of votes and waste of money our current election spending represents. We don't need to out fund raise or out spend them; we need to make their spending work against them, to use their momentum against them. I think that is the strategy for one of the martial arts, using the other person's momentum against them.
If this idea makes sense to you, will you help move it forward? we can start a tiny snowball and get help gathering more snow.