Friend —
This message is longer than what I usually send. I hope you’ll read through to the end.
I started my career as an investigative journalist and led a team that exposed corruption and war crimes all over the world. I have studied and exposed political corruption. And the harsh reality is that America has one of the most corrupt political systems in the Western world.
Trump, with his crypto scams and family deals, has taken it to a new, shocking, unprecedented level.
But corruption in American politics isn’t new. In fact, it’s a big part of why we got Trump in the first place.
Sometimes when people think about corruption they think about acts that are themselves illegal. Gold bars buried in politicians’ yards. Bags of cash exchanged at meetings in hotel rooms.
Perhaps the most insidious thing about political corruption in our system is that much of it is legal, and therefore less obvious... but no less destructive.
Ever since Citizens United opened the floodgates, our system has run on corporate money, secret money, billionaire money… and it’s worse now than ever before.
This is why public policy doesn’t work for ordinary people. This is why the United States Congress would defund nursing homes to pay for tax cuts for the rich.
Because when members of Congress aren’t begging for money from lobbyists, they’re trying to dodge getting carpet-bombed by Super PACs. Senators get threatened with millions and millions of dollars of attack ads over the votes we take.
And that corruption is why Americans pay a fortune for prescriptions. It’s why insurance claims for a child’s necessary care keeps getting denied. It’s why the United States Congress so often works on behalf of the elite and the powerful while throwing ordinary people to the wolves.
The people’s elected representatives don’t represent the people, they represent the big donors.
This is a big part of why we got Trump.
He promised to attack a broken system. It’s a ripe target.
Yes, the system really is rigged. But here’s the thing: Trump’s not unrigging it. He’s re-rigging it for himself.
He has set free the mob of criminals who violently ransacked the Capitol on his behalf.
He’s purged independent watchdogs across the government who investigate corruption and abuse.
He’s stacked the most powerful offices, including sensitive positions in the military and intelligence community with unqualified personal loyalists.
He’s called on those same loyalists to investigate and prosecute his opponents, while leaning on them to cover up the release of the Epstein files.
He and his family are using the office of the Presidency to enrich themselves in a way we have never, ever seen in American history. They’re selling gold sneakers, gold phones, crypto meme-coins... whatever they can to make a buck from those looking to trade money for influence.
It’s the grip of money on our politics that led us to this moment of crisis. And so even when this fight to stop Donald Trump is won — and we will win it — the broader fight against corruption will define America’s future.
***
When I first ran for Congress, it was because I saw that the election of someone so unfit for the Presidency was a danger to the country. And you got behind me because you saw the same thing.
When we won the Senate it was because we still understood together the urgency and necessity of the moment, and we knew Georgia could lead the way.
Now, the nation is once again turning to Georgia in a moment of crisis. Can I count on you to fight alongside me, Friend?
Thank you,
Sen. Jon Ossoff
Paid for by Jon Ossoff for Senate
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