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Policy Forum

Citizens v. the Ruling Elite

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Date and Time
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Location
Hayek Auditorium
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Featuring
Featuring Mark Meckler, Co-founder, Tea Party Patriots; Eric O’Keefe, Co-Chairman, Campaign for Primary Accountability; Geoff Pallay, Special Projects Director, Ballotpedia; moderated by John Samples, Director of the Center for Representative Government, Cato Institute.

Only 12 percent of Americans now approve of the job Congress is doing. Despite that, incumbents are overwhelmingly re-elected. Eighty-six percent of them survived the 2010 elections for the House of Representatives. That’s not much of a surprise when you consider that 80 percent of House districts are safe for one of the two major parties and 62 percent of incumbents face no primary challenge at all. No wonder many Americans feel those who “represent” them in Washington don’t really represent them at all. A new organization, the Campaign for Primary Accountability, is trying to level the playing field and to restore real representation by making incumbents more accountable to citizens. Its efforts have won praise across the political spectrum and condemnation from fans of the status quo. But it is not alone. Mark Meckler, a founder of the Tea Party Patriots, is launching a new effort to change American elections for the better. Please join us to hear these leaders talk about their continuing struggle to take back America.