the most important issue

[progressiveright]

Just something I have been thinking about. We have a lot of things wrong with our country, a lot of corruption, corrupt politicians, unfair laws and policies. Now we are one of the most free and open country of the world, compared to most contries USA is a paradise of freedom, and deservenly so, but we really don't need to pat ourselves on the back all the time, the point is that we are doing good, but we can do so much better than this.

Now what is at the core of this problem, all this dissatisfaction that people feel with our country, government, our domestic and foreign policies? And don't tell me the Bush administration, because they are just a latest manifestation of this problem. The real problem is big money. Look, americans hate politicians, it's almost like a dirty word, people assume that politicians are bought by someone and they are supposed to lie. And the reason is that they have to in order to be statesmen. You need a lot of money to run for the office. Now where is that money going to come from - people, corporations, organizations - basically special interests, that have money. That's why I don't think you can blame democrats for being republican light - it's the system that forces them to be that. If you have no money you won't get your message out, won't get elected, and won't stay in office for long - look at green party, they refuse to take any corporate money, and how many elections they have won alltogether, or how many people even know what they stand for?

Joe Scarborough, who I usually dislike, actually had a good story to illustrate this - when he first became a congressman he was a pretty green politician. When he just got elected a lot of peanut farmers in his district came to him and asked him to support a law, I don't remember what it is, but it was a kind of a bill that would help out farmers but hurt most people in his district. Joe told them he's not gonna do that, they shook hands and parted ways. Now in a week his office receives hundreds of thousands of dollars from peanut farmers, so he thinks - why in the world are they sending me money? Well, he is a politician, he needs money, so he took the checks, and when the time came to vote for the peanut farmer bill he promtly voted against it. Right after than his office was on its head with angry calls from the farmers asking what the hell he is doing. So somebody explained to him - when you are a politician and you take money from someone, you agree to support their agenda, that's how things work, and if you don't do that you won't get any money from anybody and will not get reelected.

And that what happens - every politician: congressmen, governors, senators; have to compromize what they believe in daily to get enough money to stay in power and do some good. And the longer you stay a politician, the more you compromize, until you forget what you actually stand for. Look, nobody goes into politics to be a corrupt politician, but there is just no way around it, it's a system that will destroy people with even bestest of intentions, and it really breaks your heart once you really realize how it works.

Nothing will get done until we fix this. We can get a charismatic politician here and there that will galvinize people and get money from voters because of a high profile issue (like howard dean with war in iraq), but whatever reforms we accomplish, they will be rolled back eventually, because corporations will come back, buy more politicians, and implement regressive policies again - we can win some victories for personal privacy, workers right, social programs for women, poor people, equal access to quality education - but the victories are hollow, they will be reversed.

And there is really a lot of potential to implement some changes. We passed one campaign finance reform already, that banned soft money (I am talking about McCain bill, and actually that bill is the sole reason why Howard Dean was able to raise as much money from regular people to offset special interest sponsored candidates, and get as far as he did). The bill basically says that every voter can donate up to $2000 to a candidate, no more multimillior donations from large special interests. Well, lobbyists are like cockroaches - you spray them, they come back. The way arond that law was for the CEO or owner of a corporation to walk around the building and ask high paid executives who work for them to donate to a particular candidate - now a mid level manager up for promotion is not gonna say no to that, so they collect hundreds of checks, bundle it up, and then go to candidate and say - here is 3 million dollars from Wallmart.

But the McCain bill really did a lot of good, it's a start. People are tired of this whole thing. Half of the country doesn't vote, and a lot of it because of ignorance and oversaturation with negative campaigning, but I think mostly is because people just don't trust politicians. But they want to trust, it hurts to be ruled by people you don't trust, to be told what to do by people you consider to be money driven dirtbags. That's why the first campaign finance reform got passed, and that's why there is an amazing potential to do more of the same.

There are different ways we can go around it - one idea I heard, I don't remember where but I really liked it - to have an anonymous trust fund that collects private donations and then gives them to politicians. That way politicians won't have to spend 90% of their time begging everybody for money because there is no guarantee the persons who tell them they are sending them money are actually doing so, they simply won't know where money is coming from, no more fundraisers, no more bundling of checks, a politician just goes out and says what he or she stands for, and then voters make anonymous donations to them. It's going to be hard to implement because there are so many people in the government that are used to the old system, it's going to be hard to reajust, thousands of lobbyists and part fand raisers will be out of a job, and it's just going to be weird for politicians to not know where their money is coming from. On the plus side they will actually be able to spend their time focusing on policies, rather than being on the phone begging for donations.

I was wondering if someone already thought of that idea or if there is an organization pushing this agenda, I'd like to help them out, of if not to start one, I think it has real potential. What do you think?

[moodforaday]

1. Good article

but I really don't know how this can be changed. The trust fund - I don't think so, because no-one is going to donate to such a fund thinking his/her chunk of cash will go to someone they don't support. I think you would have to outright ban any donations whatsoever (from organizations *and* from individuals), and finance political parties from the federal budget only. This has about zero chance of succeeding.

But even this wouldn't really work, because there are ways around it: a politician has a spouse or a child or a parent who runs a business, and suddenly that business gets lots of profitable contracts. Then there are "deferred" contributions, such as promises of employment after the term is up. There's just no way to plug all the possible holes.

I think the only thing that can usefully be done is to mandate 100% transparency and punish transgressors. You didn't reveal a $5 donation, you get 10 years jail without parole. And then you need a populace who actually care enough to inform themselves about who gets how much from whom. Oh, and maybe a law that says once your term is up and you don't get re-elected, you cannot lobby officials of the body you were a member of. At least in theory, there should be a way of expressing this in precise legal terms. This is somewhat akin to unfair competition, since as an ex-congressman lobbyist you're profiting from insider connections which you are no longer entitled to.

Ben Franklin said "No public office should be so profitable as to make it desirable". It's a noble thought, but putting it into practice is exceedingly hard. Maybe one could start by spreading the meme. Once a sufficient number of people are pissed off about something, you have a start.