Nearly
everything about elections in the United States is wrong. I don’t necessarily mean
that I think the outcome is wrong, or that any particular party in power is
wrong, or that the people who have been elected into office are wrong, though
all of these certainly apply in many cases. I assert that the entire framework
in which elections currently occur is wrong. Our Federal Republic form of
government, as framed by The Constitution, is designed to have the will of the
people manifest itself in the actions of their elected officials, with checks
and balances to ensure the source of power remains with the public. I submit
that this is no longer what is happening in our country; our electoral process
is broken. The effects of this dysfunction have a global reach, and a serious
overhaul is needed to prevent the power we give to our leaders from being used
to corrupt ends.
Let me
start by describing the correct way for a Democratic process to work. The best
Democracy I can imagine would be an ever-evolving system with a permanent core
tenant of power deriving from the people. As long as there is appropriate,
fair, and equal representation with the best interest of the citizens, the
nation, and the world at heart, the system would pass my test. Thomas
Jefferson, I think, had the same idea:
The
current United States governmental system does not fit this description. Representation
in the House of Representatives is skewed by gerrymandered districts and the
nuances of population by State. Restricted and denied access to voting runs
rampant in many States, mostly disenfranchising those with less money. It is
clear to me from these points alone that the once-fair system has been tampered
with and no longer works to represent every citizen equally, but we haven’t
even really started yet.
Unfortunately,
there’s a different, arguably contributing problem that makes the previously
mentioned issues of voter inequality seem fair. That problem is, of course, the
exorbitant amount of money in politics. Lobbying is an asset to our
governmental system, and it’s supposed to work like this: a group of people
with a similar goal hire someone to try and convince lawmakers to side with
them. What has happened to this seemingly innocent program is it has been
transformed from a way to have people’s opinions heard and counted in Congress,
to a way to have companies’ interests heard and counted in Congress, usually
through high-dollar-contributions to campaigns. Let’s step through this process
with an example, right after this Jefferson quote:
ConglomoCorp
is a fake company that sells wooden backscratchers. It has 100 employees, and
has $100 million every year in revenues. At the top, there is one CEO, who
keeps $34.6 million a year, and at the bottom, there are 40 laborers, who split
$4.2 million a year. As it turns out, the Laborers want to start a Union to
make sure their rights are protected. They pool all their annual earnings ($4.2
million) and back a candidate who agrees that if elected, she will represent
their interests in Congress. Catching wind that such a policy would actually
force him to pay higher salaries and provide better benefits to his employees,
the CEO backs the opposing candidate, but he only spends $10 million of his
$34.6 million annual cut. With more
resources, that candidate manages to persuade the majority of voters (even
those who don’t benefit, or are even harmed by the proposed legislation) and he
wins. In this scenario, the interests of the few haves become better protected than the many have-nots.
Once in
office, it is time to repay favors, to be sure, and follow through on promises
made during the campaign. However, with no term limits for members of Congress,
there is always the next election. This means that same deal can be made again
and again on new issues. Public opinion is persuaded this way and that with
sensationalized ads, quotes taken out of context, staged “debates” which are
clearly unfair and biased, and most frustratingly, flat-out lies. The result of
this system is that the interests of the mega-rich have substantially more
representation per capita than the rest of us. One of those interests is for
them to remain mega-rich, so they pay for policy that is good for their own
profits. The side-effects of this cycle of events are detrimental.
Let’s
revisit ConglomoCorp for a moment. Now they’ve expanded their business and have
1,000 lumber mills where trees are turned into backscratchers. These mills all
contribute to Climate Change by reducing the amount of carbon-absorbing
vegetation, and also increasing the amount of greenhouse gasses in the
atmosphere. In fact, there are many thousands of businesses doing the same
thing, as a byproduct of the business they conduct. When scientists point this
out, they use their overwhelming spending power to persuade the public that the
jury’s still out, that it isn’t happening, or that it’s actually happening in
reverse, using every non-scientific method of persuasion in discrediting
attempts. Eventually, they win enough support, both in Congress and with the
public, that their practices are allowed to continue, unabated.
Problems
with our government are many-layered, and it can be difficult to connect the
dots. I’ll try to step through these
problems that I’ve laid out, in a succinct way.
Our government is doing things wrong.
They are allowed to do so because they have the support of the majority
of their constituents. This majority is mostly bought and paid for by the
mega-rich when resources are used to sway public opinion with methods that are
misleading at best, but can also be downright evil. It seems to me that power
in this country still technically stems from its people, but the ways in which
that power flows are being manipulated by money without morality.
So what
needs to change? How can we go back to a system that is fair, balanced, and
(most importantly) truthful? One way to go about this would be through
education. If everybody were able to see through the conniving of the
mega-rich, their tactics to empower themselves and disenfranchise others, they
would be less successful at swaying public opinion to their side. Education is
empowering in that an educated voter can determine what candidates actually
have their best interest at heart. The next time you notice anything that is
keeping America stupid, keep this in mind: the dumber we are, the more power we
inadvertently give to people who take power away from us. T-Jeff, hit us again:
The
trouble with that, though, is that supplying citizens with better education
costs time, money, political capital, and also depends on certain other social
injustices getting better first. Not to mention that all of these prerequisites
are naturally opposed by those who benefit from, and prefer our ignorance of, this
broken system.
So maybe
education is more of a long-term goal. What could we do right now? I believe
our founding fathers have the solution: fair and equal representation for all
citizens. In order to get back to what they intended, we cannot allow for unequal
representation, and that inequality is fueled by the money in politics. I’m
talking about the actual real money, in the form of campaign contributions, and
also of the sly pseudo-money, such as certain legislation that will definitely
benefit a company, or disproportionate airtime for topics, issues, and people
involved in politics in any way. See John Oliver’s Climate Change debate for a
hilariously depressing lesson in how dystopian political news has become.
Money in
politics, as used to sway public opinion and buy legislation, inherently
represents the rich more than the poor. I believe that political campaigns
should all be run on an exactly level playing field. A set amount of every
elected official’s budget should be allocated towards their campaign. That
amount should be small, and that amount should be all. No other contributions,
from their own pocketbook or from that of any other person, group, or entity
should be allowed. ALL news sources, as defined by public opinion (and not by
the FCC) should be held accountable for following some form of regulation such
as the Fairness Doctrine, through which they must present issues in an honest,
equitable, and balanced way. Note: I
intend to delve deeper into this topic eventually. For now, just know that
national news networks identify as “entertainment” which allows them to be as
biased as they please. With these main pathways of money in politics
blocked off, the main sources for persuading public opinion unfairly will be
gone, or at least seriously hindered. What remains is the public, their actual
opinions, the facts, and fair and equal representation.
It may be
that this opinion of mine is unpopular, perhaps even unheard of or
unconsidered. It may also be that this idea of removing the power of money from
politics would be wildly supported by the population, but those who currently
have power (from that system) have somehow persuaded the majority not to
support it. Maybe people are complacent, and assume that this system has worked
pretty well for over 200 years. There is nearly nothing worse than going
against the founding fathers, right? I mean, just look at this other Tommy J. quote:
"[G]overnments… should not be changed[.]"
Sorry,
that was a trap. Now look at those words in context:
Right
there! It is our duty to change the government if it gets too shitty (Note: lol “dooty, change, and shitty”). It’s
in the goddamn Declaration of Independence! I have seen the processes through
which these would-be tyrants gain and maintain their power. I’ve seen them use
that power to gain more power. It is exactly “a long train of abuses and usurpations,
pursuing invariably the same object” (political power), and you betcha, the
overall design is to reduce the power of the people such that it is less than that
of the rich. Get ‘em, Teej!
Socioeconomic
disparity is only one of the myriad problems facing our country. I think the
larger problem is that the system that was set up to fix the problems has been
tainted. Unfortunately for the mega-rich and their cohorts on the inside, the
cat’s out of the bag. They continue the game, shooting money through their
channels to quiet, discredit, and distract from the issue. However, for the
first time in a long time, I see a ray of hope for the end of this cycle.
Recently,
the topic of campaign funding for Presidential hopefuls has fought its way to
public awareness. There’s a list of top contributors to each campaign, and
everyone’s but Sanders’ is filled with loathsome ConglomoCorp-esque donors. I’m
not saying he’s necessarily the best candidate for the job, but I am quite
pleased that his style of politics gets covered. Now, the reason this
information surfaced may have been someone’s political agenda to discredit
Clinton and the Republicans, and/or to garner more support for Sanders. In a
cutthroat competition like the presidential race, I wouldn’t put it past any of
‘em. However, I like to believe that the reason this topic is being talked
about is because the people, the actual, real-life people, and not the majority
in a poll whose opinion was pounded into their brains by people who wanted that
opinion to be there…the people in this country are generally smart enough to
see that this kind of money in politics could be a bad thing. The people are
well-enough informed about the wrongdoings of our government in the past, it
has betrayed our trust many times before, so it is well within reason to
believe that the entire system could be rigged against us.
I only think
very mediumly about these types of things, so I don’t have much evidence to say
that the system really is this fucked up. However, I think there’s enough to
posit that it could be this fucked
up. And if a bad thing either could happen, or is already happening, isn’t that
enough to work towards its termination? I tend to think so, and thus, I’ve
written this for you to read and decide for yourself. Remember that anything
anyone says, myself included, should be taken with a grain of salt, because the
true motive behind the words could be different from the motive you perceive,
or even different from the motive the speaker thinks is their own. Take me out,
Thomas.
"Enlighten the people generally, and tyranny and oppressions of body and mind will vanish like evil spirits at the dawn of day"
