Money vs Democracy

If it weren’t already blatantly clear, the result of the vote in Wisconsin is a perfect example of why we have to get big money out of the electoral process before it turns our country into a third world dictatorship. There are a number of ways to do this but first let’s be clear. Republican Super Pacs are not a whole hell of a lot worse than Democratic Super Pacs, or even a bunch of rich liberals getting together at a NYC ballroom to shell forty grand a head to press the flesh with Potus. All of that money could find a much better place to be spent than on dirty advertising for election campaigns.

So how do we stop it and how do we replace the process with one that is fairer and less wasteful? Well, congress can always pass a law restricting or eliminating the whole process and substituting taxpayer’s money. That would be the fairest way but expecting a bunch of gutless punks to vote against their own ability to raise campaign money from which they can shake free a few bucks for their own personal needs is like expecting a pig to fly.

Of course, trying to accomplish something in this regard while the current Supreme Court is sitting, is probably a waste of time. As long as Alito, Thomas, Scalia, Kennedy and Roberts are still alive and voting, nothing constructive can be done.  The only alternative is for some Attorney General to have the stones to indict Thomas on charges of collusion involving his wife’s business and the many cases that have come before the court involving her, from which he has not recused himself.

That improbable situation aside, a national referendum seems to be the only solution. Of course, if the Democrats take the White House and both houses of congress there is a slim possibly that enough pressure could be exerted on those gutless, crooked clowns to force them to change the tax laws, removing contributions from these so called non affiliated groups and making them no longer deductable. This would, at least, be a start. There is no reason why political contributions of any sort should be deductable. One of the main criteria for charitable deductions is that they bring no benefit to the giver. That is certainly not applicable to political contributions.

If they could manage to get this changed, what the government would make up on taxes would come close to paying for government sponsored campaigns. Of course there would have to be very specific rules about what could and could not be done with the money. Parameters would have to be established as to how much could be spent in different areas like transportation, advertising, phone work, etc. Realistically speaking, there will never be a situation where everything is equal but the aim should be to make things as even as possible so that the message, not the machine is what is important.

As I’ve mentioned before the ideal situation would be to force the networks to give up more free time for the public good. Yes, I’ve heard all the arguments both from the Networks and from those big spenders who don’t want to lose their clout but landlords all over the nation have to put up with rent control for the general good so why not TV stations.

Taking the money out of campaign spending would achieve two very important goals. It would make the process more democratic at the polls and even more important it would take these thinly veiled bribes out of the decision-making process in congress. I would be stunned if there were more than ten members of congress who wee not involved in taking campaign funds from lobbyists. Remove the possibility of that and you have a situation where money for votes is much more traceable and the whole system becomes much more transparent. Who knows, we might even get a vote on some bill based on the merits of the proposal, not on the power of the lobbyists who represent the industries involved.

Let’s face it readers, the system is grossly corrupt and the tool of corruption is money. This is not new. It goes all the way back to before the moneychangers in the temple, which goes to show you how much time its perpetrators have had to refine it.

The framers of the constitution set up a very good form of government, and ever since then, very smart, very dishonest, very greedy people have been figuring out ways to get around it. The only way they can possibly be stopped is to take the money out of the equation. That removes everyone’s motive and leaves our weak, dishonest legislators with only the merits of the legislation to consider. That’s probably more than they can handle anyway.