Get money out of politics

 In Denmark the campaign to elect a new Premier and fill 179 seats in Parliament lasted three weeks. Ours has been going on for ever. Does anyone even know when our political season stops and starts? There were no political ads on TV and voter participation was 87.7%. Over there the ban on ads and the length of time for campaigns means money doesn't play as big a role as it does over here.

As usually happens i've been having a back and forth e-mail discussion about the state of the nation. Typically we are on opposite sides but have found common ground when the subject is money in politics. Since i was asked to answer the question how do we get it out of the system i did some research. It seems that Democrats and Republicans alike don't like the fact that politicians spend the bulk of their time in office raising money for their campaigns or raising money during their campaigns.

Corporate sponsors promote the careers of legislators all over the nation and it has gotten out of hand since the Supreme Court ruled on the Citizens United case. Corporations do use money that may belong to shareholders to finance some politicians and not others.  Wealthy individuals use their money to gain privilege's with the politicians they support. Both use their purchasing power to influence them to write laws beneficial to them and not the country. In fact today our politicians spend too much time raising money from the same people they are supposed to be monitoring.

When elections are financed by a small sliver of the population democracy is threatened. i was reading a conservative piece about why giving huge amounts to PAC's by wealthy individuals and corporations is OK...they said it was peaceful. i had to laugh. When politicians accept money for their campaigns they face a conflict of interest, whether it be PAC's writing ads for them or corporations funding their run politicians are left beholden.

If we were to shorten our campaign season to three weeks the constant mud-slinging, the negativity, the mis-leading ads, and the hateful propaganda would have no time to take root. If the season was shortened and ads on radio and TV banned our politicians might have a chance to address the mounting issues that affect the entire nation. They could address the issues instead of moving from one side of the country to the other doing fund raisers. If we are to rebuild faith in our democracy issues such as money in politics and its corrupting influence need to be addressed and debated.

If our politicians were allowed to spend less time campaigning and more time governing we might get some of the most brutal abuses of money out of our political system and we might even regain our number one slot.

See  ya next week.