Washington, DC (Pontiac) – The campaign finance reform movement Wolf-PAC is joining a day of protest on December 14th, 2017. Responding to the Federal Communications Commission’s vote to possibly eliminate net neutrality, Wolf-PAC is taking a vocal stance. The group announced plans to demonstrate against FCC Chairman Ajit Pai’s attempts to go against the will of millions just days ago.
Wolf-PAC is a nation-wide campaign finance reform movement which rose to popularity during the last presidential primary. Many of its volunteers were inspired by Bernie Sanders, who’s proposed political reforms mirrors Wolf-PAC’s. Their goal is to work through state-level grassroots organization to get a new constitutional amendment passed. One which would essentially cap campaign donations and, in theory, restrict the ability of wealthy entities to influence American politics. The Fifth Column News published an exclusive interview with Wisconsin’s Wolf-PAC chapter back in April.“Keeping the internet open and equal is crucial to our ability to organize and ultimately restore true democracy in America.” Reads a Wolf-PAC email to Pontiac Tribune. “The establishment and our privatized government are working together to close it down and take away our freedom.” The email also cites a New York Times piece on the vote, which warns eliminating net neutrality would allow ISP (Internet Service Providers) like Verizon and Comcast to “dictate” online experience.
There’s been a lot of debate choking the air around net neutrality, and it’s relationship tointernet freedom. Net neutrality is essentially a series of regulatory principals hammered down by the Obama Administration in 2015. They prevent ISP’s from discriminatingagainst websites by slowing connection speeds, or charging more for quality service. It also blocks giant internet providers from breaking the internet into chunks and collect fee’s from each one. By comparison, at the moment you pay a flat rate to view all web content. Anything you want. Without net neutrality, a free and open internet might fadeaway to the tune of someone’s billionth dollar.Which is the kind of scenario Wolf-PAC has been pushing to prevent. Net neutrality is just one issue of many which the group links back to it’s main target: money in politics. Politicians are bought, but by who is important. Right now they’re bought out by giantcorporations funneling most the country’s profits to a tiny flake of humanity’s population. An internet without net neutrality is in danger of working for these entities even more than it currently does. For Wolf-PAC’s finance reform ambitions, it’s only one battle in an ongoing war.It’s a battle, nonetheless, that the world is holding as a top priority. According to Democracy Now, more people have contacted their representatives over net neutrality than even the Trump tax bill.Massive coalitions have formed joining grassroots activists, internet advocates and even its very founders, alongside big companies like Google and Netflix. Preserving a free and fair internet is a common struggle for millions of people world wide, and Wolf-PAC plans to demonstrate that with the December 14th Washington DC march. The group did not immediately respond to Pontiac for comment.
This article was written by Isiah Holmes for The Pontiac Tribune.