Moneyocracy

Moneyocracy
Official release poster
Directed by	Gerald Holubowicz & Jean Nicholas Guillo
Produced by	Sandrine Girbal/Happy Fannie
Narrated by	David Gassman
Cinematography	Gerald Holubowicz Jean Nicholas Guillo
Edited by	Luc Martel
Release date	2012 (2012)
Running time	92 minutes
Country	France
Language	English

Moneyocracy is a 2012 documentary film about Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, 558 U.S. 310 (2010),which was a landmark United States Supreme Court case in which the Court held that the First Amendment prohibited the government from restricting independent political expenditures by corporations and unions. The film explores how the Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission decision has dramatically changed the U.S. Campaign Finance Laws and lead to the most expensive Elections in the United States. The film describes the systemic corruption of the United States democracy and the consequences of that systemic corruption on the U.S. democracy and the electorate.

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Moneyocracy, a transmedia documentary about Citizens United v. FEC If you wanna run for president of the United States and you want to get in to a primary you gonna need a Super PAC I mean there's no way around it… One of the problems this system brings out, is the ability of a small number of people to have this kind of influence... Super PACs have spent more than a 100 million dollars, they've raised about two hundred and fifty million dollars and the majority of that money gets spent on television advertisements what wins elections unfortunately in the U.S is not ideas… What wins elections is message and unfortunately the american voter it tends to turn them off because of the negative ads but the same time that means that their civic engagement should be even higher than it is... and i and i understand why civic engagement is going down because of the negative advertising in the ability to win the message war but i think that's the time when the american voter needs to step up the most and educate themselves the most. It's always been true in politics in america that that you need to have enough resources to make your presence known, to have your message get out to voters effectively as clearly as it can be. The members of congress have to spend an enormous amount of time raising money it is estimated that on average the sitting members of the senate have to raise a hundred and fifty thousand dollars or more every month for the entire six years they're in office uh... what is that... seventy two months times on the fifty thousand dollars again and again and again

Synopsis

The 2012 Presidential election was the most costly ever in U.S. history. More than $6 billion have been spent by the Campaigns and independent groups to get their candidate elected.

In April 2011, Barack Obama launched his 2012 presidential campaign with these words: "We’re doing this now, because the politics we believe in does not start with expensive TV Ads or extravaganzas…"^[1]

With these words, the U.S. president directly referred to the Supreme Court's decision made on January 21, 2010, in the case Citizens United vs. Federal Election Commission. The U.S. Supreme Court decided that all restrictions placed on how much financial support private entities would be allowed to contribute to their preferred candidate's campaign (mainly via political advertisements), would violate the First Amendment and is therefore, unconstitutional.

This controversial Supreme Court decision built the framework of a new era in the privatization of the American electoral system. Thus far, Congress has failed to draft an amendment to address this decision, which will undoubtedly result in an increase of all corporate-derived lobbying and influence in American politics. Former Presidents Woodrow Wilson, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Dwight D. Eisenhower^[2] warned America against the influence of private and corporate interests over the democratic process. Today, the risks of passive corruption have never been greater in Washington and democracy feebly lingers in the shadow of Wall Street.

What are the legal and political implications of this decision? Is this the beginning of a new era when corporations will shape the political arena as their businesses? What are the consequences for Americans and the rest of the world? If the world's first democratic power falls into the hands of private interest groups, what will the implications be for China, Europe, South America or Africa ?^[3] In Ohio alone - one of the first political ad markets in the U.S. - the total amount of money spent by both sides (Republicans and Democrats) reached $30 million.^[4] A record since the beginning of TV advertising. These ads are mainly paid for by non-party groups independent from the candidates' campaigns. They are known as Super PACs, and 501c4s and their only purpose is to influence the electorate.

Super-PAC money spent on TV ads is called "Independent Expenditures". Since the 2006 mid-term elections, these have gone up by 338%. Given that only 0.26% of Americans donate to political campaigns, where does the money spent by the Super PACS to influence American voters come from ? 80% of the money received by these groups is provided by a tiny portion of the American people – 0.0000063% to be precise. Who are these 0.0000063% ?^[5]

Interviews

Main characters appearing in the documentary and the interactive documentary:

Trevor Potter (@thetrevorpotter), Campaign Finance Expert, Former Commissioner & Chairman of Federal Election Commission and Attorney
Bob Biersack (@rbiersack), Former FEC Data analyst and Senior Fellow at OpenSecrets
Adam Skaggs (@jadamskaggs), Senior Counsel at the Brennan Center for Justice
Lawrence Lessig (@Lessig), co-founder of Creative Commons and law professor
Walter Shapiro (@waltershapiroPD), Political Columnist, 9 Presidential campaign covered
John Bonifaz (@johnbonifaz), co-founder and executive director of Free Speech For People
Paul Blumenthal (@PaulBlu), Reporter @HuffingtonPost covering campaign finance
Adam Lioz (@Demos_org), Lawyer and policy advocate for Demos.org
Tom Sutton, Chair of Political Science at the Baldwin-Wallace University (OH)

Related movies

External links

References

^ Obama, Barack (4 April 2011). "Running again in 2012". USA Today.
^ Eisenhower, Dwight. "Farewell Address".
^ "Supreme Court Oral argument - Citizens United v. FEC case". Retrieved 9 September 2009.
^ "Mad Money - Washington Post". The Washington Post. Retrieved 4 November 2012.
^ Lessig, Lawrence. "The Problem With Money in Politics - Lawrence Lessig, Harvard Law".

This page was last edited on 7 May 2024, at 00:35

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