I think it's pretty obvious that most of our congress persons are bought and paid for

[madokie]

why can't we do something about campaign finance? Thats where the trouble truly lies

[ixion]

1. it goes beyond congress

the vast majority of the government is bought and paid for, at all levels.

[madokie]

4. We need to get our heads together as citizens and do something about this

our constitution supports us on this issue so it should be a slam dunk. All we need is leadership. Does that leader have to be super smart or just have what it takes to take it to the airways and tell it like it is? If I thought I was intelligent enough for the job I'd get out there myself as someone needs to and soon as we're loosing the battle for America here now.

[spanone]

2. guess who has to vote for campaign finance? right, those who are benefitting the most

[Toots]

3. I am still naive enough to not believe that

I believe there are still forty Senators and Two hundred Congressmen that are not on the take. But as we are seeing forty Senators is no where near enough..

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

5. That has been the problem all along.

It's been the problem for years. We will never get legislation that consistently benefits ordinary people until the campaign finance system is fixed. And that won't happen because of Buckley v. Valeo, which was decided in 1976 and which basically says that the First Amendment protects the rights of corporations to donate money to politicians. McCain-Feingold tried to get around that by mandating that only individuals can give directly to candidates for office, but there are a thousand loopholes, such as PACs, by which corporations can shower politicians with money. And now we are waiting for another Supreme Court decision, Citizens United v. FEC, which might invalidate McCain-Feingold, and restore the ability of corporations to contribute unlimited amounts directly to candidates. So the campaign finance system will probably become even more corrupt (and corrupting) than it ever was.

Politicians require huge sums of money to finance their campaigns, so they'll never turn down corporate contributions. This is true of both parties, and this is why the Democrats are just as beholden to their corporate contributors as Republicans.

And it's also why we little people can't do a damn thing to change it.

[madokie]

9. We sure can't do anything about it if we take on a defeatist attitude

which I will refuse to do no matter whats said or done. We can do it, how, I don't have any answers but we can and must do it

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

10. I agree in principle, but it's pretty tough to get around a Supreme Court decision.

So what do you do? Appoint more liberal justices. But that can't happen until the current ones retire or croak. And maybe that won't happen for years, and maybe a more conservative president will be in office and appoint more tools like Scalia. So that's why I'm not very hopeful.

[Overseas]

6. The first part of your post answered the last part of your post.

Most of our congress persons are bought and paid for, and that works very well for the corporations who govern us all,

so how can we get the legislators to kick out their campaign funders?

If it's anything like healthcare reform, Democrats will take the most effective reform off the table (public financing of campaigns) before starting discussions, and then drop more and more of its teeth in order to make it ONE PERCENT bipartisan. Olympia Snowe has to like it!

The Blue Dogs' corporate lobbyists will prepare the final legislation.

Then the DLC will declare victory.


I'm not usually this cynical, but after seeing the 44,000 people that die early in our cruel system cast aside in favor of fake-bipartisan gamesmanship, I am tired of scrounging for shreds of hope.

Basic compassion cast aside to make sure things were "fair" for insurance companies who worked so hard to increase their profits and devise new ways to drop customers who needed care.

[KansDem]

7. If anything, this "health-care debate" has shown who Congress really works for...

I began to suspect something was up months ago when the Max Baucus held hearings on "health-care reform" and all the "expert witnesses" were from the health-care industry. Not a single person was pro-single payer! Not a single person was pro-public option! Not a single person was pro-universal care!

I never realized just how beholden to corporate interests our Congress really is...:(

[madokie]

8. I've been in denial for a long time concerning this

but this issue brought it out so plainly I can't ignore it any longer. We're not being represented like we should be

[tinrobot]

11. ..and I thought Obama was finaced by millions of small donations.

Guess not even that is enough to overpower big money from big corporations.