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By Megan Caska RepresentUs Director of Political Campaigns |
March 13, 2023
Benjamin Franklin invented Daylight Saving Time*
See, this is why you shouldn’t get your facts from movies. ( 👀 Lookin at you, Nick Cage's National Treasure 👀 ).
As we all prepare ourselves to absorb more daylight like we're under-photosynthesized plant-based life forms, let's look at what Daylight Saving Time (DST) tells us about our broken system of government.
Just a few days ago, a bipartisan group of Senators introduced the Sunshine Protection Act to make DST permanent. More sunshine sounds great, right? But what if I told you that Daylight Saving Time is a prime example of special interest-driven government corruption?
Special interests, huh? Did you first think "farmers" like we were taught in grade school? NOPE. It's corporate lobbyists again. It's always corporate lobbyists.
The National Daylight Saving Time Coalition has been responsible for pushing to keep this antiquated system in the name of larger corporate profits.
Meanwhile, changing the clocks around twice yearly leads to an uptick in everything from traffic accidents to heart attacks and miscarriages. Not to mention making our babies and pets even fussier.
Pretty much everyone dislikes changing the clocks around. So why don't we do something about it?
Because government corruption, sleepyhead.
Whether you want permanent DST (a boon to industry) or sticking with Standard Time (like the sleep scientists and early risers say we should do), it seems Congress can't decide because the special interest noise is too loud.
This might seem a little silly, but it's a perfect example of what's wrong with our political system and why we fight so hard to fix it. Even something as popular as ending the practice of changing our clocks twice a year gets muddy and difficult because of special interest influence.
We're glad we have a bipartisan bill to change this. We love bipartisanship.
It's just very typical that it takes lobbyist influence to make it happen.
That's why we do what we do and we need you to be a part of it.
*he didn’t
Contributors: Sean Carlson, RepresentUs