We did a poll at the end of last year,

and we asked people, how important do you think it is

to reduce the influence of money in politics?

96% of Americans said it was important

to reduce the influence of money in politics.

But then we asked them, how likely do you think it is

that the influence of money in politics will be reduced?

And we found 91% of Americans believed it was not likely.

Now these two numbers, 96% plus 91%,

produce what we can think of as the politics of resignation.

Resignation, we accept the reality we don't want.

But if you could give people some hope

that there was a way to make a change,

you might be able to thaw that resignation.

For at least that was the idea

behind a project that I announced at TED this year

called the May One Project.

So May One, as in May Day, which harmonizes well

with Mayday, as in emergency.

We wanted to call a Mayday on this democracy.

And we wanted to announce a project to launch

a superPAC to end all superPACs.

For the last year we've asked some consultants to calculate

how much would it take to win a Congress in 2016

that would have the power, that would have the effect,

of passing fundamental reform.

How much would that be?

And then we would kickstart, both from the bottom up

and then the top down, enough to run that campaign,

so that by election day in 2016

we would get the majorities in the House

as necessary to pass fundamental reform,

the first step to reducing

the influence of money in politics.

Now we did this in two stages, 2014 and 2016.

And in 2014, the idea was how do we raise $12 million

to fund some races that would give us a chance

to affect substantially the way people perceived

the possibility of winning on this issue.

We said we would do this first by raising a million dollars

in 30 days, kickstart a million dollars in 30 days.

And if we did that, we would get that matched.

And then we would kickstart $5 million in 30 days,

and if we did that we would get that matched,

and then we'd use that to win in five districts

and set this foundation for 2016.

And in 2016 we'd have to spend

a godawful amount of money,

we're not sure what that number is yet,

but it's a really big amount of money to win.

Now you look at this and say,

Wait, you're using big money to end big money?

And I get it, it's kind of ironic, right?

but as Lincoln used to say,

we had to be resolved, and this is our resolve,

to find a way to build this government

of, by, and for the people, not for the incs in government,

dependent on the people alone and that's what we aimed for.

On May 1st, we launched this experiment, this crazy idea

of kickstarting a million dollars in 30 days.

In the first day and a half,

we had raised more than $300,000, then the servers melted.

We will today cross the million dollar line

with two weeks left on that initial goal.

Now this is the people caring, pundits.

This is the people caring.

More than 10,000 people have signed up for this.

Average contribution is $87,

10,000 people who are fed up

with the way this system functions

and are willing to step up to do something about it.

I get it when I talk about this.

People say to me, you know,

It can't really be this bad, you're being Cassandra-esque.

But here's the thing, Cassandra was right.

(audience laughter)

She was right, and when I tell you about this corruption,

you know I'm right.

96% of you know I'm right,

and only we, more precisely, only people like you

can mobilize the movement necessary

to take back this democracy from the cronies who control it.

So I'm grateful for the flash of coolness,

again standing on a Wired state,

and grateful for the opportunity to ask you to join us,

to join us in an effort to do

what everyone says is impossible,

to reclaim for we, for us, for the people

what was promised to us 227 years ago.

Thank you very much.

(audience applause)