This presidential election will likely set a new record for the cost of buying presidential influence. Both candidates may spend close to a billion dollars. When you include the Congressional races, the total cost is closer to 2 billion dollars. And, we the people, are forced to endure a continuous gauntlet of mudslinging TV commercials (where most of the money is spent) that are mostly lies or half-truths, and all viciously attacking the opponent. I'm fighting back. I'm turning off commercial TV until after the election. At least there is some solace in knowing their money isn't reaching me.
One has to ask, why do people and corporations donate so much money to campaigns? The answer certainly isn't for unconditional love of our country. Obviously, they expect favors - big favors - or legislation that makes their political investment pay off. Or worse yet, they expect to manipulate the arms of government to bend regulations, ease up on audits and inspections, or have key government employees look the other way so they can maximize their corporate profits at the expense of workers, consumers, the environment, and posterity.
One also has to ask, when did politics become so sleazy, and has it always been like this? I'm afraid to say, "Yes Virginia, there is a Santa Claus". In fact there are 535 Santa Clauses in Washington. But unlike the real Santa, all the letters to these Santas are stuffed with money.
Why aren't people doing anything about political corruption? The answer is they are at the state level, to some extent, but not where it really matters, at the federal level. Public financing of state elections is taking hold little by little, but public financing at the federal level is just never gonna happen. The stakes of special interests are way too high, and their pockets are way too deep to win that fight. Time after time, legislation to reform federal election financing fails to even make it out of sub-committees. The special interest lobbies are in effect, "too big to fail" and too big to kill.
The system is so corrupt, the very idea of election finance reform is shot down as being un-American -- even labeled as a socialist agenda that would undermine the foundation of our American election process. They even accuse politicians who support grassroots election finance reform as demagogues- exploiters of the poor and undereducated class- for their personal gain. They paint the enemy to be the villain so the people won't see the real bad guys- the manipulators of our democracy.
If you compare politics to a baseball game you can get an idea of just how sick and crazy our democracy is. Imagine a baseball game that goes like this. The home team needs a win to stay in the pennant race. The game is tied. It's the bottom of the ninth inning and the home team has the bases loaded with two outs. A walk would bring home the winning run. So the batter comes up the plate, turns to the umpire, and asks, "How much is it gonna cost me for a walk?" They chat about it, and the batter hands the ump a big wad of cash. Then the ump calls four straight pitches "balls", walks the batter and they win the game.
You might ask, where was the opposition during this? Why didn't they protest? Chances are the other team already had a future deal bought and paid for that was more important to them. They may have even agreed to lose this game in exchange for a win against another team. So they let this one go.
That would be just like having a Senator vote for welfare subsidies (even though he's opposed to it) in exchange for buying a vote on defense spending (that he cares more about). It's graciously called compromise, or give and take, but really it's sausage in the making, and it stinks.
If baseball were played like Congress operates, we wouldn't even know the the rules of the game. The rules would change as the special interests funneled their money into every crack and crevasse of government to serve their interests. They are "fracking" the political system in search of the mother lode.
Bill Veeck, the hilarious owner of the old St Louis Browns, had a field day with baseball rules and did some very funny things to get people into the ballpark. He once set up an outfield fence that was moveable. When his team was at bat, he'd move the fence in. When the opponent was at bat, he'd move the fence out. After that incident, baseball re-wrote the rules to insist the fence stay in a fixed position, but prior to that, there was no rule about the fence, so it was fair game.
Politics is the same way- all the time. They manipulate the system for special interests and walk on the very precipice of legality. When it's unethical, yet legal, they try to get away with it, unless somebody makes a big stink. If they get caught, the pious lawmakers scurry around sticking their fingers in the money dike, and extract their pound of flesh by throwing one or more of their own to the dogs as a scapegoat. The sad thing is, they have to get caught before they'll do anything about it. They know right from wrong. Yet, they have no problem doing the wrong thing if it isn't technically "illegal".
That's how our government works. That's what a billion dollars in election funding is buying. That's the American way. If it was baseball, we'd say they were all a corrupt bunch of sleaze bags. But because it's politics, we accept it. The Supreme Court even endorses the process as an expression of free speech and granted corporations "personhood" so the could contribute unlimited amounts of money to campaigns.
So, I'm sitting this one out. I plan to write-in Jill Stein from the Green Party. I like her and what she stands for. And you can be sure that a person who has no chance of winning is incorruptible.
I'll close my rant by quoting what Representative Barney Frank had to say about campaign financing: "We are the only people in the world required by law to take large amounts of money from strangers and then act as if it has no effect on our behavior."
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