Just when you think your efforts and hopes have materialised and the world is the better for it with the election of someone you work so hard to get into office. You start to realize that there are OTHER forces pulling on your dreammaker and they all of a sudden do things outof charcter from the words they have spoken all of their lives- WHY !!!- I think I have a fix for this
We are in need of major campaign finance reforms again. Past reforms like term limits or others like reporting contributions have not had their fully intended effects. The reporting requirements were meant to make the cockroaches run in the spot light of public scrutiny. They are dependent upon a robust media and a vigilant public; neither is the case.
Term limits, these have been effective to some extent but they have done more harm than good. By the time a politician figures out our political system, they are termed out of office. In order to pass any comprehensive law, they need to have help from the revolving door experienced old politician turned lobbyist to help them push legislation thru the system. In effect, the lobbyists have an even tighter grip on our politicians.
Currently, we give money to politicians, for a campaign. If they win, unspent money becomes the politician’s future war chest. This gives them a sense of invincibility. What is worse is that the winning politician continues to collect contributions even larger ones from big donors who suddenly become their best buddies and thus the politician is bought out by the special interests. The politician is no longer looking out for the initial supporter’s interest; they can stay in power as long as they don’t cross their large donors. Their large war chest of past contributions and continuing collections becomes too formidable for any potential opponent. Thus we have our current broken "democracy".
If you believe in one person, one vote and you believe that there is too much money in politics, then help start ballot initiatives all over this country. Consider these reforms, if you like them pass this along:
- Legislate that all contributions need to be earmarked for a specific campaign only.
2)Legislate that all unspent money from a campaign should be donated by the politician to a charity which happens to be involved in the area that the majority of donors had prescribed to when they made their donations making them tax free donations, (only on a total percentage of collections and unspent monies basis.) So even if the politician loses, the remaining contributions can only be used to further a cause believed in by the majority of their donors, not as a slush fund for the politician to spend as they see fit! The credit for the charity contribution gets to be taken by the original donor- us!
- Legislate a moratorium on any further donations to any politician until 1 year prior to an election. Levels the playing field between large corporations and individuals because currently, corps. keep donating annually up to limits while we don't usually have the financial capacity to do this annually.
- Legislate that all non individual entities(unions,corporations,non- profit groups and political action committtees) must have any donations predicated on a vote by their members/share holders/donors. In other words,any organisation wishing to donate to a politician must have a majority of their members authorizing the donation.
- Legislate that all donations to non profits must be spent directly by that entity, they cannot be donated to yet another entity thereby eliminating the fog of uncertainty as to actual the parties involved.
6)Legislate that each candidiate get half an hour of television time within the first 30 days of their campaign. All candidates must attend a televised debate WITHOUT special rules of debate, they must follow only those set out from the beginning by the legislation. The debate must happen within 1 month of the election.
- If the above works, we won’t need term limits except for say after more than 12 years in the office.
Thanks, Kamlesh M. Desai, m.d., f.a.a.f.p.