ENGLISH SPEECH JENNIFER LAWRENCE AntiCorruption English Subtitles
We are witnessing a total political system
failure in America.
If you’re anything like me you may find
yourself constantly overwhelmed by everything
that’s wrong with politics.
And when I say politics I’m not talking
about Democrats or Republicans.
I’m talking about the flaws that exist in
our political system regardless of which party
is in power.
And I know, it’s hard to talk about politics
these days, but look: The government is ours.
We pay for it, so it needs to work for us.
And right now it doesn’t.
And I mean it really doesn’t.
So, what’s going on here?
Is it Russian meddling and social media?
Is it him?
Is it her?
No.
Those two were the least popular presidential
candidates since they began keeping track
of such things.
Only 4% of Americans have a great deal of
confidence in Congress now.
Just 4%.
America is no longer even considered a full
democracy.
We are witnessing total political system failure
in America.
Which is the complete opposite of what our
nation’s founders had in mind.
So I’m going to show you three lines that
show what’s causing this failure, how we
can fix it, and what you can do about it.
So, here’s your first line.
What I want you to do is take any issue you
really care about and picture it on this line.
This line comes from a Princeton University
study that shows how public opinion influences
the laws that Congress does or doesn’t pass.
They looked at eighteen-hundred public opinion
polls over a twenty-year period, and we took
their data and plotted it in this chart.
See this horizontal line?
That shows public support for a law amongst
average Americans.
This vertical line?
That shows the likelihood of the public support
leading to the passage of a law.
When you plot it for the average American,
you get a line that looks like this.
There’s your issue sitting on that line.
If there is zero support for a law, there’s
about a 30% chance that Congress is going
to pass it.
And if there’s 100% support for something,
the most popular thing ever, there’s still
a 30% chance that Congress is gonna pass it.
So the line is horizontal because no matter
how much support there is among average Americans,
there’s still a 30% chance that Congress is
gonna pass that law.
Princeton determined that the “preferences
of the average American appear to have only
a minuscule, near-zero, statistically non-significant
impact on public policy.”
How in the hell does this happen?
Consider this.
Politicians are spending up to 70% of their
time raising funds for re-election after they
get into office.
Why?
Because in order to win a seat in the Senate
in some races, you would have to raise $45,000
every single day, 365 days a year for 6 years
to raise enough money to win.
Now consider that only .05% of Americans give
more than $10,000 to politics, and then you
see why politicians have become completely
dependent on that .05% of Americans (billionaires
and special-interest groups!) who fund their
campaigns.
Meanwhile, you’ve got lobbyists writing our
laws and donating to the politicians who pass
them, we have a two-party duopoly of Democrats
and Republicans that makes it so that independents
can’t win, while the American people are leaving
the major parties in droves.
As you can see here, nearly half of American
voters are now registered independent.
And then there’s gerrymandering, with politicians
drawing the boundaries of their own voting
districts into crazy shapes designed to prevent
competition.
Today only 14% of House campaigns are actually
competitive.
86% of them are not.
And we wonder why young people feel that their
vote doesn’t matter.
I’ve covered a lot here, but it all adds up
to this vast ring of influence over our elected
leaders.
It’s a corrupt system in which “We the
people” have “near zero” influence over
our own government…
And that.. is sad….
That is not the country I feel like I grew
up in.
But what’s worse is that by allowing this
to happen we are causing the failure of the
most important issues facing our nation.
We’re wasting trillions of dollars a year
on fraud and abuse in our own government.
One in five American children live in poverty.
Our healthcare is the most expensive in the
world.
We have more people in prison per capita than
Russia and China.
We’re losing jobs to the rest of the world.
And we’re not even doing enough to keep our
air and our water clean for our children.
America was founded on the promise of self
governance.
But instead we have statistically non-significant
impact on public policy.
So, first of all, the US Constitution gives
states sole control over how elections are
run — even federal elections — so when
we fix gerrymandering or election laws, that
fixes the federal election in each state.
That means that by going state-by-state, we
have an immediate impact on how we elect Congress
and how we hold them accountable.
But there’s more… and that brings us to
our second line.
This line is from a Bloomberg News study.
It finds that throughout American history,
passing state laws leads to federal victory.
Let me show you what I mean.
This chart shows the number of states over
time that passed laws giving women the right
to vote.
When it hits the right side of the chart,
that’s the federal victory.
Okay, now I want you to watch the blue line.
We’re gonna do this again with interracial
marriage.
There were a few states in the Northeast that
made it legal, decades ago, and centuries
go by and we hit this blue line where all
of a sudden there’s a rush of activity, which
leads pretty quickly to federal passage.
So here we are again, with same-sex marriage.
One state, Massachusetts, for many years.
A couple decades later we hit that blue line:
a jump in state activity and federal passage.
This isn’t about these issues.
This is about a winning political strategy.
The crucial finding in the Bloomberg study
is that a “key event, often a court decision
or a grassroots campaign reaching maturity,
triggers a rush of state activity that ultimately
leads to a change in federal law.”
So, fixing this problem IS possible.
But how do we create our trigger moment for
this issue?
Well, the “Grassroots Campaign” from the
study?
That’s RepresentUs.
We’re bringing conservatives and progressives
together to pass Anti-Corruption laws all
across America, using three strategic innovations:
right-left coalitions, calling out corruption
and building a movement.
A big movement.
And I’m gonna break them down for you.
Can I do this part?
No.
First, right-left.This is how people self-identify
in America.
This isn’t party identification, this is how
you feel politically.
And as you can see, its 25% liberal, 36% conservative,
and 34% moderate.
But for the past 40 years, on the reforms
I’ve outlined, it’s liberals speaking to
liberals, using liberal language, with liberal
messengers…..
Liberal….
I just had to say that one more time.
And you’re just not gonna change the political
power structure of America with 25% of the
people.
Fixing corruption requires that we enlist
all Americans, liberals, conservatives, and
moderates who, as we’ve shown, overwhelmingly
support reform.
Number two, corruption.
When we talk about money in politics, gerrymandering,
democracy, campaign finance reform…
most people just tune out, but people are
fired up about corruption.
And number three, we must build a movement.
A big movement comprised of all kinds of people
from all across America, fighting to pass
anti-corruption laws, and then make sure they
are implemented and protected.
So again, liberals and conservatives working
together, corruption, and build a movement.
This is the foundation of RepresentUs.
We believe the government should work for
every American, not just a handful of billionaires
and special-interests.
But it’s not just an idea.
In a few years, we’ve already racked up 85
wins all across the country.
And if we can get those 85 wins to 850 wins,
we can fix our corrupt political system, save
America, and get to work on fixing everything
else that’s broken in our country.
This is how we build this movement big enough
to trigger that “rush of state activity
that leads to a change in federal law….”
And that brings us to our last line.
Right now this is you and right now these
are all of the ways that you can help us go
state-by-state, city-by-city to fix the corruption
in American politics.
Volunteer and join a RepresentUs Chapter — or
if that’s not your thing, join the Common
Wealth to make a monthly donation in support
of someone who does volunteer.
100% of your money goes straight to passing
these laws.
Not to overhead or our expenses.
Every voice matters.
Your voice matters.
If you do nothing, nothing changes.
But if we all do a little.
We can win, together.
So the only question left is this…
Will you cross that line?
Join us at www.Represent.Us