Remember last November when we were all so excited about Obama’s election and were determined to help him (and ourselves and our country) change things? Well, how much have you actually done? So many issues, so little time. This diary is about the one issue which could change all that. If we, the people, actually had representatives in government who were working for our best interests, we wouldn’t have to be running ourselves ragged trying to take of health care, minimum wage, the environment, bad agricultural bills, etc., etc. Election reform is the key to it all.
The Fair Elections Now Act would go along way toward the goal of releasing our representatives from the hold of big donors and lobbyists. Senators Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Arlen Specter (R-PA) have introduced this groundbreaking bill to replace special-interest-funded elections with citizen-funded elections for Congress. Find out more about this Act.
I just called my two senators and congressman who are Republican as the day is long, but this is a bipartisan bill and who can be against campaign reform? (Heh!) Change Congress has a really neat and easy way to call. Click this to call congress You get a page with all of Congress listed alphabetically by state. Click on the name, and there is a page with their number and talking points. When I called I asked if they had heard of the bill, and if not, told them about it. Then I asked them if they thought the rep or senator would co-sponsor it. In all except Simpson's (ID--02) case it got to be kind of a 2-way conversation. It was actually fun.
There's a place to report your call, and it also shows how many calls the rep or senator has gotten on this issue and that have been reported. Pretty cool!
If you only have time to work on one issue, this is the one that will set the basis for taking care of all the others.
