For just $6 per person the feds could completely fund election campaigns. Imagine a world where your campaign messages are not brought to you by ADM or Rupert Murdoch, where people don’t have to be well connected or well financed to run for office, where corporate big wigs and wealthy mucky mucks don’t get to demand quid pro quo from elected officials because they got them in office.
I’m in- where the hell do I send my $6?
Haven’t looked too deeply at this yet, sounds like a good idea…
but i would offer this caveat:
this would need an across-the-board policy that anyone,
ABSOLUTELY ANYONE
who wanted to run for any office for which they meet the legal requirements for the office they’re seeking(i.e. be a 35 yr old native US citizen to run for president) would be funded EQUALLY,
WHATEVER, WHATEVER, WHATEVER THEY WANT TO SAY
even if it means telling the voters their opponent is a genetically engineered space-alien who wants to eat their brains for breakfast
(their opponent can sue them for slander later if they lose)
even if it means a candidate runs on a virulently racist, sexist, platform
(God help us all if such maniacs get elected)
without this provision, federally funded elections could quickly become a “rubber-stamp” process for the incumbents who could simply refuse funding if they don’t like what a candidate has to say – just like the big donors can now
that being said…
i’m willing to spend $6 to take elections out of the hands of the fat cats & put themback in the hands of the people where they belong
will they take a personal check?
what about limiting the amount any donor (individual, corporate, public or private) to, say, let’s throw a random number out there,… $100
I wonder though about making this a “voluntary” system… couldn a candidate just “opt-out” and rake in donations from fat cats with even deeper pockets, now that they don’t have to spread their funds so thin?
If this move ever took place America might just turn into heaven on earth and no one wants that.
Private campaign funding is the real root of all evil but it has never even been curbed, let alone disallowed. It can’t be as simple as six dollars. There are larger, darker forces at work.
I know- big scary evil forces at work. But don’t tread on my optimistic little dream.
Of course I think that there shouldn’t be an opt out clause, and that all private funding from whatever source should be disallowed. Then the only thing you could contribute to a camapaign would be volunteer labor.
ahhh… but see… then people would have to actually think “is this candidate/issue/cause” actually worth my time?” rather than just dropping a check in the mail to whoever’s ad campaign did the best(or most recent) job of inspiring/scaring the hell out of us