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Forum Post: The Corporations OWN both the Right and the Left - we need to get the Money OUT!!!

Posted 12 years ago on Dec. 26, 2011, 6:48 p.m. EST by LSN45 (535)
This content is user submitted and not an official statement

There are a lot of improvements that need to be made. The list reforms Americans want to see is long and varied depending on who you talk to. That said, I believe there is one reform that would provide the American people the best chances of seeing other meaningful reforms actually happen - that is REAL, loop-hope free CAMPAIGN FINANCE REFORM! I have seen others on this site calling this the "fulcrum" or pivotal issue. Right now the current legalized bribery, pay-to-play system of campaign donations and paid lobbyists has disenfranchised the American voter. Until this is fixed, any other reform the politicians may try to placate us with (be it a change to healthcare, clamping down predatory school loans, new financial regulations, etc.) will be about as effective as a farmer putting a new roof on his CHICKEN COOP, but still letting the FOX guard it.

We need to go back to the original political currency. Instead of the current system of who can collect the most money from corporations and special interests it should be who has the BEST IDEAS to EFFECTIVELY RUN THE COUNTRY (we don't need "Wealth Redistribution," what we need is "Political Influence Redistribution")!

For the sake of our children and future generations of Americans, we need to take back our democracy from the rich and powerful who are using their vast sums of money to "speak" as if they represent millions of Americans. This "Corporate Personhood" that has crept into our laws is allowing them to manipulating our policies in their favor at the expense of the average American (the recent "Citizens United" Supreme Court ruling is a miscarriage of justice and must be reversed. The $50 or $100 a normal American may give to a political campaign becomes meaningless when corporations or other special interests are handing our millions to buy political access to the decision making process.

For decades now the corporations and special interests have had our "representatives" bought and paid for (both on the right and the left). Concentrating our efforts on getting the money out of our politics is the best way we can create an environment in which further reforms can be realized. Until we end the current system of legalized bribery (campaign donations) and paid lobbying our politicians will continue to be the LAP DOGS of the corporations and special interests. What we need first and foremost is real, loop-hole free CAMPAIGN FINANCE REFORM!!!! If the corruption is not dealt with first, the chance of any other meaningful reforms becoming a reality is almost zero - the special interests will just use their money to buy votes and put forward bills that create loop-holes or otherwise twist the law in their favor. If we want our children to live in a country where there vote matters, we need to get the money out of our politics, otherwise they will increasingly become the 21st century version of the "landless peasant." Spread the word - End the LEGALIZED BRIBERY!!! CAMPAIGN FINANCE REFORM needs to be THE main goal of the protests!!!

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[-] 2 points by LSN45 (535) 12 years ago

I agree that it will be difficult to change the corrupt culture, but it is not impossible (and if you have children, we have no other choice but to fight this). We actually don't have to vote them all out - we just need to get the laws changed to get the money out. How do we do this? Article 5 Convention for an Amendment to the Constitution (see the "Get the Money Out" and End Corporate Personhood groups that are promoting just that). A tall order, but not impossible if Americans wake up. I've seen polls showing the the vast majority of Americans already want to see less corporate influence in their politics (last one I saw was 84%) and the American people need to capitalize on this. Once the chain is broken we will start getting real statesmen and women running for office and winning and the obsolete incumbents will slowly be run out of office if they can't deliver. On a side note, an excellent book addressing this is "Republic: Lost" by Lawrence Lessig, a Harvard Law Professor who lays out a framework to get the Constitutional Amendment passed.

[-] 1 points by AFarewellToKings (1486) 12 years ago

"It sounds unlikely to happen. But this is where Occupy Wall Street comes in. Properly leveraging its support, it could generate enough energy to do what Lessig, while writing this book, couldn’t quite picture. In fact, the original call for Occupy Wall Street, from Adbusters, called on president Obama to “ordain a Presidential Commission tasked with ending the influence money has over our representatives in Washington.” Already, “The 99 Percent Declaration” is calling for “a NATIONAL GENERAL ASSEMBLY beginning on July 4, 2012 in the City Of Philadelphia” to address the influence of money in politics and other issues.

Properly presented, the strategies and aims of Lessig’s book could make it the handbook the protesters have been looking for — and provide a pathway for them to ride out the winter ahead.

Image credit: REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst"

http://www.the99declaration.org/

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