Keeping the money out of politicians hands

[bloomington-lib]

After watching the Ratigan clip I posted the video on my FB and got lots of comments/shares from both sides of the aisle. Taking money out of politics is something we both agree on and I think it should be used to bring us together and push for real reform. But what exactly does it mean, taking money out of politics?

We've all heard campaign finance reform brought up countless times and it seems to go nowhere. It actually ends up getting worse. There seems to be more money in it now than ever.

If we all combined our voices and had one single demand what would that be? For it to become a useable idea I think it needs to be simple, direct, and easily communicated throughout both sides. If both sides do not agree it would just be used to divide us further and the pigs win again.

The first thing that came to mind was banning contributions and allowing the candidates a set amount of public money (maybe even private) but no more than that set amount. No person has an edge with money unless it's how clever that money is used in the campaign.

If possible, I think we should agree on one, demand it during some of the protests and see if it catches on and spreads.

Do you agree?
If so, what are some of the ideas we can come up with?

[Scuba]

1. Rachel had a guest named Lawrence Lessig who proposed...

...each citizen be given a $50 voucher (tax funded) that they could donate to the candidate of their choice. Each citizen would also be allowed to donate $100 of their own money....

...I like that proposal, but he goes further...


...candidates could accept these public donation OR private donations, but not both. Lessig's premise is that the $50 voucher times 350 million citizens (or was it 155 million eligible voters??)is far more than the total spent in 2008.

My objection is that the wealthiest could still outspend the citizenry if they wanted, and they would knowing that with their pet politicians in office they could easily recoup their "investment". The Kochs could do it by themselves.

[PETRUS]

2. Any concentration of power

(and as we know, money is power) has the potential for abuse. The only way to keep money out of politics is to prevent it from concentrating in too few hands. As long as some people possess extraordinary leverage over others, they will find a way to use it.