Jimmy Williams: Unholy Alliance Between Money and Politics

"I'm shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on in here!" -- Captain Renault, Casablanca Would you walk away from $500,000 a year to work to make America a better place? Jimmy Williams did. Williams, now the Executive Director of Get Money Out, is the lobbyist-turned-activist whose conscience drove him to partner up with MSNBC's Dylan Ratigan in an attempt to save America from itself. Benzinga Radio spoke with Jimmy Williams, who gave us an insider's view on how money fuels not only the political system, but the anger that keeps Americans down. Listen to the full audio here. The Get Money Out Foundation and movement was, as Williams puts it, something that just sort of emerged from the anger and disconnect Americans feel with their government. "It came up organically because people were so pissed off, and are pissed off — even I'm pissed off and I'm part of the system," Williams said to Benzinga Radio. "It's odd. The Tea Party sort of started this movement a couple of years ago, and they've been talking about it. You've got Occupy Wall Street, and they're talking about it. Finally, America gets the fact that DC politicians are operating under a quid pro quo system, but DC doesn't get it," he added. The movement is not a partisan one. Nor should it be conceived as a partisan movement. No one, whether Republican or Democrat, can be happy with the role that money plays in American politics. It's pure bribery, and it's blatant, and I think we can all stand up and say that isn't right. That's why when Williams talks about raising money for the Foundation, which uses the money to advocate for a Constitutional Amendment to change the system, he talks about the diversity of people involved in the movement. "I want liberal money," Williams said. "I want conservative money. I want non-political money...to be pumped into this so we can stop the buying of politicians in Washington." Yes, the buying of politicians in Washington. It seems illegal, doesn't it? Hand your Congressman a stack of twenties in exchange for a favorable bill or regulation and you should probably go to jail with Tom DeLay, right? Yet, in Washington, that's not only HOW things get done — it's the ONLY way things get done. "I was sitting at my desk in July, and I was pretty unhappy with what was going on, and I got a phone call from a member of Congress," Williams said. "He wanted me to raise $25,000 for him for a fundraiser." "I hung up the phone and it occurred to me that, if I don't raise this guy $25,000, I'm not going to be able to get a meeting with him. I'm not going to be able to take a client in to see him. I'm not going to be able to do anything if I don't do this. The key word being 'if'. That's called a quid pro quo. It occurred to me that this is a sickening, bad circle of life here. And why should I, as an American citizen, have to raise someone $25,000 or $25, or in the case of the Koch Brothers, $25 million, to get a meeting with somebody? Shouldn't I just be able to get one because I'm an American citizen and I've got a client who is pissed off about something or who needs help?" Williams continued, "You look at your scenario, your life, and you gotta make a decision. Are you happy or are you not happy? And it occurred to me, I wasn't happy. So I thought, I can't do this. So I left my firm." Williams took a month off to clear his head and decide what's next. It was then that he hooked up with Ratigan and together, they decided to start a movement to get money completely out of politics. "I liken this to you find out you've got cancer. You want to get the cancer out of your body. You want to do radiation, chemo, alternative therapies? I don't care give a damn what it is. It doesn't matter. The point is, get every cancer cell out of my body. Don't leave $25 of cancer in my body. Don't leave $25,000 of cancer in my body. Get every bit of the cancer out. The only way to do that is to amend the constitution to say that money is not speech," Williams said. That's been the problem, actually. Campaign finance reform has been on the agenda of every Congress for fifty years, if not longer. Once a generation or so, something actually passes. We had all sorts of reforms during the Nixon years, which is about as close to an ironic statement as you'll find in modern American politics. We had the McCain-Feingold bill, which tried to put limits on the money that could be contributed and spent on elections. Unfortunately, we also have five jackals running the Supreme Court, including two (Clarence Thomas and Antonin Scalia) who have yet to meet a bad idea they won't enshrine as the Founders Intent. These are the geniuses who decided that corporations are people, and therefore have unlimited free speech rights. They're also the geniuses who decided that money is speech...which means that corporations can now spend whatever they like in bribing Congress and buying the President of their choice. This leaves Williams and Ratigan with one option: a Constitutional Amendment declaring that money isn't speech. A Constitutional amendment, while difficult to enact, is the only thing that can really stop the Supreme Court (itself bought and paid for by corporate money) from allowing the wholesale auctioning of the American government. But a Constitutional amendment isn't going to just emerge from nowhere. There has to be a movement behind it, and that movement needs real energy. "I kind of liken it to the Tea Party or to Obama's campaign from 2008. You have to build a movement and it has to be organic. It's got to be a group of people that have an ultimate goal," Williams said. "Here's the thing about Congress. You've got to understand how Congress functions. Congress doesn't build bridges until they fall down. Congress doesn't think of cleaning up oil spills until the oil is spilled. Congress doesn't do anything that is proactive. Congress only reacts. So, I want Congress to react to 2 million people saying this," he added. Given the unpopularity of essentially every major political figure and political party today, Williams thinks that now is the time for reformers to strike. "I would suggest to you that the American people are ripe for something to hold on to. I think America just wants its government to work for it. Neither party has it right nor wrong, completely. But I think that what most Americans want is their government to help people when they need help, and to leave them alone when they need to be left alone." I hope he is right. We cannot remain in this tensioned limbo much longer. Either the system collapses under the weight of its largesse and corrpution, replaced by a dictatorship of one form or another, or we reform and bring harmony to the country. There is no third way. There is no middle ground. Reform the system, get the money out, or the whole thing dies. Williams and Ratigan are betting on reform. Hundreds of thousands of Americans have signed the petition. I am with them. Are you? For your children, for your country, for an American government that works for all of us, please sign the petition, here, right now.