Campaign Reform

Politicians are the result of our society. Dishonest, greedy and/or foolish politicians were such people before becoming politicians. We cannot have sanity or civility in our government until we have such in our society. And, I believe that we cannot reduce the anger in this country until we reduce the lack of clarity surrounding what is expected of the people including Congress.

During the last election I heard Blacks supporting the Democratic candidate because he is Black and Whites supporting the candidate because they wanted to show they weren’t prejudice. And, Jews thought he was Muslim. I could not believe the law suits over whether or not a candidate is valid to run for president. It’s the Government’s/court’s job to uphold our Constitution. The courts copped out saying it’s the party’s responsibility to ensure the Constitutional requirement is met. The Party did not support the people or the Constitution as time, money and continued anger was wasted by the Party not demanding that proof be shown. I don’t know if the President couldn’t or wouldn’t show the document he provided 2 ½ years later to stop the ‘side shows and carnival barkers’. The simple fix is to enact a law to require all candidates running for President to show their birth certificates to the Supreme Court when they announce their candidacy. I don’t know if it’s against the law for a state to issue a birth certificate to individuals not born in said state. If it isn’t, it should be. You are born where you are born and this should include children adopted by US citizens. In order to comply with the Constitution, if such a practice is occurring we need to stop it so that we can verify that a person is legally authorized to run for President.  

Too many people do not look at the issues. To discourage this behavior we need to eliminate the ‘All Democrat’ and ‘All Republican’ boxes on the voter’s ballot. People should be thinking about each and every candidate and a generalized preferential political party selection negates the importance of our voting system.

Because you have to be rich or have a lot of connections to be in office, I believe reducing campaign spending to a maximum of $500,000 would insure millions of dollars aren’t wasted and would deter a candidate’s tendency to satisfy his/her donors. An example of government backing the rich is builders being allowed to build in flood zones and you now needing a separate policy for flooding or insurance companies don’t have to pay. Without that policy, homeowners expect FEMA to take care of them. From a federal government standpoint, I’m not sure where the logic in this is. I believe, at least in some states, insurers are legislated to share the burden of high risk drivers and hospitals are to share the cost of low income patients. To help reduce campaign spending we should consider free air time or equal TV time for candidates. This would assist in people not being swayed by the frequency they see or hear a candidate instead of focusing on the issues at hand. There seems to be such a love for the internet that campaigns could be conducted online and on the news so all that hobnobbing around the country, polluting the air could be reduced. Per ABC News, David and Charles Koch, both billionaires and co-owners of Koch Industries Inc., are said to have contributed over $100 million to the Tea Party. Campaign money would be better spent on legitimate charities.

Truth in campaigns would also help the people to decide which candidate is best for the job. You don’t want bullying – how about setting an example. With the Tucson tragedy our federal representatives almost stopped bullying one another. It’s not fully understood by our politicians that they continue to act like bullies. I heard Health Care Reform being called Obama Care; this only shows your continued lack of cooperation. I find the Colorado Congressman’s comments calling President Obama a ‘tar baby’ as unnecessary bullying that offended many Americans. Katie Couric did point out the term was not originally offensive when written over 100 years ago but it does today. In a poll this past summer 85% of Americans thought politics were becoming increasingly uncivil.

If we could clean-up the campaign/election process we may be able to get real leaders that will show equal concern for all citizens; a true ruler that will do what’s best for the majority.