John Wellington Ennis: WATCH: What is the Pay 2 Play System?

For the last six years, I have been on a mission to document the cycle of how money works its way through our political system, how this cycle steals from the public and where opportunities lie to reclaim our democratic process. Just unveiled at Netroots Nation, I am proud to be able to present the first 10 minutes of my new documentary PAY 2 PLAY: Democracy's High Stakes, featuring Robert Reich, John Nichols, Van Jones and Jack Abramoff, among many others.

WATCH HERE

Recent years have proved dramatic and pivotal in this subject, from the Citizens United ruling, to revelations surrounding the Koch Brothers and ALEC, to Occupy Wall Street. And while the core lessons have stayed the same about monied influence in our elections, what has proved even more impactful has been the growing awareness of the might of people power.

Beyond naming names and muckraking, I hope that my film PAY 2 PLAY will be able to help citizens recognize the amount of power the people have, and how individual voices can go much further than we dare to think. This is how I came to follow the work of political street artists in Los Angeles. This is why we blog, or make documentaries. This is why we rely on crowd sourcing like Kickstarter. This is why your vote matters so much -- it almost counts several times more because of all the people who don't vote. When we don't speak up, we contribute to silent assent.

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