
BetaFEC - Amorymeltzer
https://beta.fec.gov/
======
leahbannon
Hello there! I'm the product manager on the 18F side of this project. Happy to
answer any questions folks have about it.

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sandGorgon
Are you going to make this/all open source? The work you are doing is so
cool,that it probably can be used in other countries like India (which is
already signing up for FOSS ijne-governance in a big way)

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adelevie
[https://github.com/18f?utf8=%E2%9C%93&query=fec](https://github.com/18f?utf8=%E2%9C%93&query=fec)
:)

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tomd
We're really excited to see that BetaFEC[0] is running on Wagtail[1], our open
source Django CMS. Great job, 18F!

[0] [https://github.com/18F/fec-cms](https://github.com/18F/fec-cms)

[1] [https://github.com/torchbox/wagtail](https://github.com/torchbox/wagtail)

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cryoshon
Uhh... a new website, great. I know it takes the federal agencies a lot of
time to do literally anything, so let's stop for a moment and bask in this
site.

To more important matters: what about stopping the flow of corporate and
foreign money into our elections? What about shutting down Super PACs or
making their info transparent? What about enshrining publicly funded
elections?

Given all those recent studies/reports that claim the USA is an oligarchy and
average citizens have no real impact on the direction of policy, why should we
care about a shiny new website? We vote, but the votes don't matter anyway.

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jzd
Do not downvote the posts by cryoshon

cryoshon is addressing the elephant in the room. Anybody who downvotes his/her
posts is unwilling to address the elephant in the room.

This is an important topic which warrants further discussion.

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jonknee
No, it's just whining that the FEC isn't doing what cryoshon wants. In reality
the FEC can't do much because it's stuck in partisan deadlock and things like
the Citizens Vs. United ruling allow them to do even less.

This website has nothing to do with the infighting between political parties,
it's about giving citizens the actual data. Change will come not from the FEC
magically agreeing on anything, but from people finding out where the money is
going and voting for people who vow to change it. This is literally the best
the FEC can do!

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jzd
Agreed. However cryoshon's point is that just giving us all the data isn't
going to change anything even if we have the information. i.e. our votes are
irrelevant.

So even though we have a nice new site, it's a waste since the outcome is the
same.

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jonknee
I completely disagree that it's a waste. The new site is great.

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jzd
But the politics don't change as a result of it.

