We speak with former Michigan Congressmember Andy Levin, a former synagogue president, who lost his 2022 Democratic primary in a race that saw millions spent by pro-Israel groups to unseat the progressive Jewish lawmaker. AIPAC, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, and other lobby groups have used the same playbook over the years to defeat members of Congress who do not toe the line, and Levin says the Democratic Party has to act to stop such “dark money” from deciding elections and push for a new policy on Israel-Palestine that brings peace. “We need to all get along there, and we need to work together here to make that happen,” he says.
  • just_another_person@lemmy.world
    54·
    2 months ago

    Well let’s get fucking real about this. PAC activity is bad because it invites foreign influence and limitless spending. The honest tale is that any system that allows this is bad, and these shitheads are just exposing that, and it’s not the first time.

    We need to repeal any laws that allow this kind of bullshit. Also probably to stop self-funding of campaigns, as has become a problem.

    • ChlkDstTtr@lemmy.world
      28·
      2 months ago

      We had a law. The Citizens United ruling by the Supreme Court invalidated it saying the First Amendment takes precedence so we’d need another Amendment limiting speech in politics, which is complicated. I believe we already have laws about foreign money in politics, but we have extremely weak enforcement for it (and weak enforcement of other political laws in general). If we made stronger laws requiring PACs to report where all of their funding came from the current Supreme Court would likely knock it down saying anonymous speech is also protected by the First Amendment.

      • chaogomu@lemmy.world
        192·
        2 months ago

        We don’t need an amendment. We just need to get rid of a few openly corrupt supreme court justices.

        Because as has been shown, precedent can be ignored.

        • lennybird@lemmy.worldEnglish
          154·
          2 months ago

          I am writing a several-thousand word paper on this very thing, and the nature of a corrupt court doesn’t get fixed until you put better representatives in the House and Senate, which doesn’t happen until you change the rules of the game for Campaign Finance & Election Law.

          Ultimately, the stacked court is there to stay for decades if not perpetuity until a grassroots demand for a constitutional amendment reforming our elections occurs. This must be a movement as big if not bigger than civil rights in order to happen. But it’s the only way to fix the root problem and also sidestep the Supreme Court.

          Pretty much every single major issue that plagues our country is caused or exacerbated by:

          • The Electoral College
          • FPTP Voting
          • Money = Speech, Dark Money, and Corporate Personhood
          • Gerrymandering
          • chaogomu@lemmy.world
            2·
            2 months ago

            Don’t get me started on Ordinal vs Cardinal voting systems… But the TLDR is that Ordinal is great when you have two options, and shit when you have more than that.

            STAR is the best voting system I’ve found so far. (Still looking for better, but STAR is pretty good)

            • lennybird@lemmy.worldEnglish
              14·
              2 months ago

              Yeah STAR is really promising! I ultimately appreciate anything that 1) isn’t FPTP, 2) Eliminates the Spoiler Effect, and 3) is extremely intuitive to even the most demented grandma and youngest most newest newcomer to voting. I really like Approval Voting because it’s kind of foolproof.

              Like you said, hard to find perfection (eg, condorcet winner meets intuitive), but we also can’t let perfection be the enemy of good.

        • Stovetop@lemmy.world
          3·
          2 months ago

          I’ll take the amendment still, one worded strongly enough that a corrupt supreme court can’t argue around it.

  • nkat2112@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    20·
    2 months ago

    This is horrible.

    I’m truly sorry we lost Andy Levin’s support in the Michigan Congress. And I won’t soon forget the foreign meddling that caused this.

    • Twentytwodividedby7@lemmy.world
      6·
      2 months ago

      He lost his reelection a while ago. His district changed due to redistricting. I met him at the Huntington Woods 4th of July parade. Really seemed like a great guy

  • Modern_medicine_isnt@lemmy.world
    7·
    2 months ago

    What is the real solution to money buying elections. All I can think of is the gov gives you a budget, and that is all that can be spent. People are welcome to voice thier opinions, but not to spend money spreading it. Seems unlikely to work out as planned. Any better ideas?

    • LibertyLizard@slrpnk.net
      4·
      2 months ago

      Ban political advertising and campaign contributions, at minimum. Might need a constitutional amendment for this.

      Or it might be necessary to ban rich people.

      • Modern_medicine_isnt@lemmy.world
        1·
        2 months ago

        Yeah that’s the thing, an solution that requires an ammendment is a nonstarter. That is why all these PACs exist. They are not part of the official campaign, so they aren’t under any campaign rules. I just don’t know how we manage that without an ammendment.

    • aStonedSanta@lemm.ee
      3·
      2 months ago

      This is correct. The government decided the amount you get for ads and such. I’d really like something like France also where we have a media black out about it leading up to the election.