The FCC's net neutrality vote is less than 10 days from now, and Demand Progress helps you tell your government that you want the most vigorous net neutrality protections possible. Because anything less, as the old ad used to say, would be uncivilized. No, really, it would be uncivilized to let big corporations with bad arguments win this battle simply because they have a lot of money. Americans deserve an internet where we, not some big corporation, determine which sites we want to visit, without big corporations censoring websites they don't like, without big corporations slowing down websites they don't like, without big corporations delivering some websites to your computer more quickly simply because those websites' owners have paid them for the privilege. Net neutrality won't create some Big Gummint-controlled internet -- it will give our government the tools it needs to prevent a corporation-controlled internet. I prefer a people-controlled internet myself, where anyone can start a web page with minimal financial investment, and where the best ideas really do have the best chance of flourishing.
Meanwhile, if you've missed previous opportunities to tell your Congressfolk to reject any efforts at gutting the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, or CFPB, then National People's Action and Roots Action still help you do that. The CFPB has done yeoman work in curtailing the worst excesses of corrupt home lenders, greedy for-profit colleges, and predatory payday and title lenders, so why would Congress want to cripple the agency? Because it works for people, and doesn't work for their biggest donors, who are by and large the only people Congressfolk like to listen to. You'd think that Congressfolk would have realized by now that though money can buy you elections, votes actually win elections, and doing good works for the voters can actually win you elections even when you're outspent. Of course, as Ann Kirkpatrick would tell you, you have to actually advertise your good works to your constituents. I guess I can see why just listening to your biggest donors and blankly doing their will is the easier path. But that only means we have to make it that path the harder path.
Finally, the Securities and Exchange Commission (or SEC) was considering whether or not to force publicly-traded corporations to disclose the campaign contributions they make, but whether because of SEC Chair Mary Jo White's own pro-corporate biases or because of fear that Congress (now dominated by Republicans) would slash their agency's budget if they issued those disclosure regulations, the SEC has all but abandoned the idea, despite getting several hundred thousand comments from good folks like you and I in favor of it. Hence Avaaz helps you tell the SEC to force publicly-traded corporations to disclose their political contributions. The SEC is well within its right to do that, given that its mandate, by law, is to protect shareholders, and shareholders don't just care about money, they also care about good works. And we shouldn't let Republican hostage-taking deter us -- put the Republicans in a position where they have to defend cutting the budget of the SEC because it did the people's will and fought secret campaign contributions that no one but rich donors likes.
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