For OWS, and everybody else out there looking for real change

[MadHound]

There is one, and only one way by which we can remove corporate money from our government. That is an Amendment to the Constitution mandating publicly financed elections for every office, from dogcatcher to President.

Anything short of a Constitutional amendment will get shredded by the courts and legislatures, one has but to look at what has happened in Arizona, Vermont, Maine and elsewhere.

Publicly funded elections would, in effect, overturn Citizens United, along with removing all corporate influence in our elections. It would restore we the people to our rightful place as the ultimate arbiters of our government policies.

But passing such an amendment would be a long row to hoe. It would require us, all of us, to become one issue voters first and foremost. We would have to make an amendment for publicly funded elections the litmus test for all offices at the state and national level. Everything else would be secondary.

I know that sounds a bit drastic, but these are drastic times. If we don't take our government back from Corporate America through peaceful means, then it will have to taken back by violent means, or not be taken back at all.

This should be the single issue that motivates us, retaking our government from the hands of Corporate America. No other real change will be possible until that happens.

[neverforget]

1. Absolutely get the money out of politics. It's killing democracy....

.....what we have left of it here

[MuseRider]

2. Absolutely. n/t

[Rabblevox]

3. I disagree completely with public financing, it has been a flat disaster most places...

(And yes, we have Public financing for municipal elections here in Portland)...I HATE it. It has been a huge waste of dollars, only one publicly financed candidate in 6 years has been elected (and she is a one-term disaster.)

I will absolutely work to kill public financing here, it's the wrong answer.

Instead?

Every registered voter can donate $1,000 to candidates, parties, PACS. Split it however you will. No person or entity other than a registered voter would be allowed to give a dime to a political campaign.

This would allow the wealthy to have a slightly larger voice than the poor, (very few people donate $1,000/year to anything) it would also seriously level the playing field.

[MadHound]

6. Your "reform" is no reform at all,

You would simply see increased donations to other outside groups.

So you are basing your opinion on one election? Not a very large sample size.

[Rabblevox]

8. 3 election cycles locally with public financing, and I've followed it nationally...

particularly in New Mexico and Connecticut, where it hasn't worked very well either.

And my half-baked (admittedly) suggestion for reform specifically said that it would be a cap on total donations to any political entity.

It might not be the best idea on the planet, but I think we can all agree the current system of money in elections is badly broken.

And I will state emphatically, until I am blue in the face, that publicly financed elections is NOT the right answer to the problem.

[alfredo]

4. K&R

[joshcryer]

5. Nah, just repeal the Reapportionment Act of 1929, and bring back fair representation.

I http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=433x767436">wrote a post about this a little while back.

The problem isn't money spent in campaigns (that's merely a result of unfair representation where one congress person has to represent more than half a million, up to a million people). The problem is money spent by lobbyists. Over a billion dollars. There's nothing inherently wrong with lobbying, as if you're a small little NGO or something and you want to propose better clean air laws or something, I see nothing odious about going up to a politician and making your case. But if there are only several hundred politicians you can make that case to, then the only ones who can make the most effective cases and get in the room with them, are the wealthiest.

As it stands now the left spends way way more money than the right on political campaigns (through PACs and the like). We would have complete control over the Congress if we had fair representation.

It's damn bloody unlikely though, but I'd put its odds about the same territory as going fully public funding.

[MadHound]

7. Sorry, but when candidates are raising hundreds of millions of dollars for election campaigns

You can't tell me that corporations aren't buying influence. Yes, we need to deal with lobbying, but campaign finance reform is the more pressing issue right now, especially after the Citizen's United ruling.