None of our economic
problems will get fixed as long as our government is broken, and our government
is very broken. It is broken for one
simple reason: money. People and
companies in Washington with lots of money are allowed to buy influence, and
being in Congress has become a job that legislators will do almost anything to
retain. Both of those things need to
change.
In addition, methods
for manipulating public opinion have become very effective. Some view lying simply as a tactic rather
than a moral issue. Manipulating public opinion costs a lot of money, but that
isn’t a problem. It is worth a lot of
money to rich people and companies to get preferential treatment from the
government, and that is what they do.
This is a very
difficult problem to solve. The rich and
powerful almost never give up their privileged positions without a struggle. The people in Congress who must solve the
problem are those who are causing it, but we must find a way to prevail.
Some of the following
proposals may be implemented with laws.
Some may simply require rule changes in Congress. Some may need constitutional amendments. But whatever the process, this is what needs to be done.
Political Contributions
- Contributions Only from Your Constituents
Only individual people should
be able to contribute to the campaigns of persons running for elected office,
and they should be able to contribute only to candidates for whom they are
eligible to vote. If the candidate is not going to represent you, keep your
money out of the election.
Only individual people
can vote, and they are the only ones who should be able to influence the
outcome of an election through political contributions. No companies, corporations, labor unions,
organizations, political parties, or other entities except individual, living
people should be eligible to make political contributions in money or kind to
any candidate for elected office.
Likewise, none of these groups should be able to run advertisements on
their own that clearly are designed to affect the outcomes of the election by
supporting or denigrating a particular candidate.
The Supreme Court may
believe that corporations are people, but people know that they are not. By people we mean real, live,
sitting-in-your-living-room people.
Small Amounts Only
No individual should be
able to contribute an amount to a campaign that is so large that by itself it
significantly affects the outcome of the election and causes the candidate to
incur a special indebtedness to the contributor. Successful candidates must receive broad
support from many people. A small dollar
limit such as $500 dollars should be placed on contributions from one person to
one candidate during one election.
