America’s Core Problem…Money in Politics

America’s Core Problem…Money in Politics

There is no shortage of problems in America.  If you’re focused on fixing any one of those problems, thank you!  And yes, there are deep rooted social issues such as racism and other forms of discrimination, plus religious intolerance that won’t be fixed by limiting Money in Politics.  But if we had a functioning democracy, we could better address those social issues.  Sadly, Money in Politics is a difficult problem to fix because the U.S. Supreme Court is elitist and pro-corporation.

  • The Supreme Court has given constitutional rights meant only for individuals to artificial entities such as corporations, unions and nonprofits such as Super PACs. This gives corporations constitutional advantages over the American people, since corporations have a lot of money and never die.
  • Corporations can afford to continually bring cases to SCOTUS until they get what they want.
  • Supreme Court Justices generally have privileged backgrounds and an ivy league education.

Billions are spent buying politicians via donations and Super PACs.  This is nothing more than bribery.

  • Billions of dollars are spent on negative attack ads that spew misinformation which divide Americans.
  • Politicians prioritize campaign cash over doing what’s good for their constituents.

Billionaires and Corporate Special Interests have a very different agenda which results in bad policy for Americans:

  • Billionaires and Corporate Special Interests control our tax laws resulting in historic wealth inequality.  Mega corporations can eliminate their competition and are exploiting the middle and lower classes.  Everyday Americans can’t get ahead anymore and they’re frustrated and angry.
  • Gun manufactures and the NRA owns the GOP and now there are more guns than Americans, resulting in almost daily mass shootings.
  • Healthcare companies own plenty of politicians and America’s healthcare costs are twice as much as  any other country.
  • The Koch Brothers were pioneers in buying influence which fueled climate change deniers for decades and hurts our transition to clean energy.
  • The Military Industrial Complex owns enough politicians to make sure America spends more on defense than the next 9 largest countries combined.
  • Deregulation results in environmental degradation, toxic pollution, healthcare problems and climate disasters.
  • Public schools are failing because families are stressed and disillusioned about the future.  It all comes back to inequality.  Inequality brought on by money in politics.
  • College is so expensive because of the lack of state funding, because colleges aren’t bribing enough politicians.

All this results in a populace that is divided, misinformed, frustrated, angry, blaming government corruption and the other party for all their problems.  It’s all related to our corrupt campaign finance system, compliments of our Supreme Court.

Solutions:

  • Make voting both easy and secure.
  • Disclosure requirements on Political Spending (no more dark money).
  • Adopt election systems with non-partisan primaries and ranked choice voting.  This encourages moderation and discourages partisanship.
  • Eliminate gerrymandering by adopting nonpartisan districting.
  • Public financing for candidates (stopgap solution, since big buck candidates can opt out).
  • Overhaul Lobbying and Ethics laws.
  • Amend the Constitution to clarify that only people are people and money isn’t the same thing as speech.
  • Change our system of representation to encourage majority rule and discourage rule by a radical minority.

Get Involved. Get Active…Let’s Fix This!