Justice John Paul Stevens recently told Congress “Money is not Speech”
I don’t know about you, but I want my vote to count. I surely don’t want to worry that a big corporation’s lobbyist is taking my Congressman’s attention away from the general public.
In the USA all citizens need a level playing field and have the opportunity to rise up from their current economical situation. The level playing field is what gives each person the same opportunities. So when the Supreme Court defined Corporations as “equal to an individual with the same rights”, you lost a lot of the equality. The courts allow corporations to lobby politicians and donate funds to campaigns in public or private. The companies or politicians then need to keep raising more dollars, mostly from the wealthy and the corporations diluting your share and your representation. The politicians, as always, look to raise campaign funds and then need to provide a preferred level of representation to those groups. Otherwise they might not receive the funds they need in the ever increasing costs of campaigns. If you want to keep your job and all the perks that come with it then this is the system that is in place today. Money buys representation.
My hope is to see campaigns be publicly funded! No options. That would put a new paradigm in the works. Then as a politician you do not have to spend all your waking hours thinking and doing things to raise funds for your next campaign. That frees you up to represent your true constituency. That takes the money out of the equations a bit. It changes the cycle of political motivation. Lobbing would be by individuals, for the money behind them would not be used for campaigning. Public dollars would be distributed in a fair and equitable way. Cut out the loop holes. Let’s make it fair to all American citizens.
Level the playing field! Money is not speech. Campaign finance rules need to be adjusted to better level the playing field in the elections and representation in government.
