Campaign finance reform was a scam. The Pew Charitable Trusts faked a movement. Here is the video from one of its architects, explaining how he did that, after the fact. It’s also a remarkable manual to effective lobbying, and easier in the age of AI than ever.
“We had to take unaccountable Money from the system…”
And the way to do it was…with unaccountable money. Goodish news: it worked!
The strategy is laid out after the paywall…so subscribe already :)
The specific strategy:
Create an Incremental Approach — it is the “next step” in reform.
Generate experts outside Washington power centers who our movement can cite.
Lobby Congress— only.
Generate the perception that “everywhere—people are talking about reform” in religious groups, minority communities, and other key constituencies, “everywhere,” people are talking about reform.
It doesn’t have to be true. It just has to work.
The fundamental message is that Congress members will be punished if they don’t vote for reform. The impression is that voters will punish them, and the only thing you need to understand is that creating fear in Congress is the only outcome necessary to change the law.
So Pew funded reports, experts, groups, and campaigns…secretly. They had a scare that journalists would figure it out. One, George Will, see something was up.
Crucially, the Pew Charitable Trusts decided they HAD to hide their involvement, so they generated the smoke screen of reform efforts to do it on the cheap…if congress thought it was a Pew effort, “we had to hide our involvement”:
They never issued a press release, they filed all the appropriate paperwork, but they never advertised their involvement. It had to feel organic! They disclosed everything only to the bare minimum necessary and required by law.
It’s an uncomfortable question asked by this attendee—why are you encouraging a lack of transparency? His answer: “it’s completely legal.” And it’s cheaper to hide it. “So that’s what we did.”
“I’m a lawyer, I have a career and a family…but did we push the envelope? Yeah!”
And the most crucial sentiment:
“We stayed within the letter, if not the spirit of the law.”
The sounds a heck of a lot like Healthcare lobbying efforts. It’s a template that works.
The time for a form is now. We’re gonna vote you out if you don’t do it. Create the experts, create groups, create the reports, target the ads, Repeat, repeat, repeat.
It doesn’t even matter if a journalist figures it out—because they won’t even care!
Now, can we fix Healthcare? The Pew Charitable Trusts got campaign finance reform passed with a budget of millions, not billions! We just need to take our propaganda seriously and target it at the decision makers who matter.
Is it more important to be sincere or to Win?
I’m not actually criticizing the above, although it’s deeply cynical. I’m tired of our citizens losing because we’re not willing to be effective advocates for their health and regulation that champions it.
Who is with me?
(Hat tip: Ryan Sager, the journalist who broke this story 16 years ago)