“Let’s play a lightning round game,” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez announced in front of the House Oversight and Reform Committee last week. In the few minutes to follow, the New York Congresswoman brilliantly outlined the corrupt system that political candidates take advantage of.
“It’s already super legal, as we’ve seen, for me to be a pretty bad guy,” she later added.
From corporate interest PACs and dark money funded campaigns to legal hush payments, Ocasio-Cortez brings light to a number of shady aspects of our campaign finance laws. Campaign finance reform is a popular idea, but the laws are complicated and discussing it in the mainstream can be tough. However, a video of Ocasio-Cortez’s “lightning round game” might just be what it takes to change the narrative.
The video of the lightning round tweeted by NowThis News has become the most viewed video ever by a politician on Twitter, according to the outlet. A lot of this attention might be confined to the ideological echo chambers of social media. Regardless, it is encouraging to see a complicated yet crucial issue like campaign finance reform be dissected in such an effective manner.
Every election cycle, corporate PACs from various interests pour millions of dollars to help elect candidates of both parties. There is hope, however. In 2018, Beto O’Rourke showed the country that you can indeed fundraise effectively without any PAC money. In fact, he raised more than any Senate candidate in history just from individual donations, according to Dallas News. So, what’s everyone else’s excuse?
Nearly all of the likely 2020 Democratic candidates have taken the pledge to accept no donations from corporate PACs, which is a sign that at least one major political party is taking a step in the right direction to fix a broken system. But until we reform our broken campaign finance system that gives unfair influence to the richest donors and corporate interests, politicians will continue to leave everyday Americans behind.
Members of both parties should agree that it’s time we create a system in which campaigns and policy making is by, of, and for individual American people.
Alex Jackson is a senior studying strategic communications at Ohio University. Please note that the views and opinions of the columnists do not reflect those of The Post. Want to reach the College Democrats? Send them a tweet @OUCollegeDems.
