I Heart the Political Process
Here's an idea for revamping the electoral process which I realize isn't terribly original, but it makes a lot of sense to me:
- Allow $0.00 to be the maximum contribution individuals, businesses or anybody else, including the DNC and the RNC, can make to political campaigns.
- Set aside a taxpayer funded (gasp!) account for ALL elections - local taxes would pay for local elections, state taxes for state elections, and federal taxes would pay for national elections.
- Candidates for public office would have access to this public fund after they've proven eligibility in a number of ways, e.g. getting an appropriate number of signatures, background checks, whatever. ALL CANDIDATES WOULD HAVE THE EXACT SAME AMOUNT OF MONEY AND RESOURCES to use as they see fit, within established limits.
- Give tax incentives to media outlets for offering discounts for political ads, etc.
It is my hope that system would ultimately lead to the dissolution of political parties, or at least a major drain on their power. The candidates elected under this system would owe no favors to anyone except the people that elected them, which would significantly diminish the power of lobbiests. It would turn our country into a true democracy; rule by the people. We all know it isn't that way now.
posted by Smorgasbord @ 10:48 AM
2 comments
2 Comments:
Sounds good, Smorg. The problem is that politics is all about power and power is granted by money. Current politicians are all about insulating themselves from a fair electoral process as evidenced by the farcial McCain-Feingold Campaign Reform Bill--a bill that made it virtually impossible to unseat an incumbent politician.
-Jack
Yea, that's exactly the problem. Money is power, so if campaigns were financed by the public, the public would have the power - instead of corporate interests.
Unfortunately there's no hope of an electoral re-jiggering such as this ever getting passed. Power of the people is a dangerous myth.
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