How to Buy a Politician

This week hosts Tiffany Cross, Angela Rye, and Andrew Gillum talk about the single most powerful force in Washington DC: the special interests.    Why is it that our political leaders so often act in opposition to the will of the voters? There is an industry of lobbyists and special interest groups that donate unlimited amounts of money (thanks Citizens United) to fund our politicians' campaigns, gain access to their offices, and influence their decision making. On today’s episode our hosts de-mystify the D.C. machine–who do our politicians REALLY work for? We’re looking at you, BlackRock.     Check out who donates to YOUR representatives at www.opensecrets.org/   Speaking of the influence of special interests, Palestinian Mahmoud Khalil has been separated from his family and jailed for protesting the war in Gaza while he was a graduate student at Columbia University. His fight is not over and he has a message for all of us, read his open letter here: inthesetimes.com/article/mahmoud-khalil-letter-from-a-palestinian-political-prisoner-in-louisiana   TELL US which special interest groups concern (or excite) you! Submit a question or comment to our Instagram page, directions below:    www.instagram.com/reel/C5j_oBXLIg0/   We are 593 days away from the midterm elections. Welcome home y’all!    —--------- We want to hear from you! Send us a video @nativelandpod and we may feature you on the podcast.    Instagram  X/Twitter Facebook NativeLandPod.com   Watch full episodes of Native Land Pod here on YouTube. Native Land Pod is brought to you by Reasoned Choice Media.   Thank you to the Native Land Pod team:    Angela Rye as host, executive producer and cofounder of Reasoned Choice Media; Tiffany Cross as host and producer, Andrew Gillum as host and producer, and Lauren Hansen as executive producer; Loren Mychael is our research producer, and Nikolas Harter is our editor and producer. Special thanks  to Chris Morrow and Lenard McKelvey, co-founders of Reasoned Choice Media.  Theme music created by Daniel Laurent.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.