Government without representation

We might still elect our representatives and heads of government, but in the end who do the elected “represent”?  The money interests.

For example, how likely is tax reform?  The fact is there is too much money supporting not closing the “loop holes.”  If the candidates supported closing the “loop holes” they would certainly find themselves cut off from their “funders.”

Campaign finance reform can really get the money out of politics.  But what kind of reform should we support?  There are a number of solutions (some good, some less good).  I think this is the challenge of our time.  But it is also the opportunity.  We can (and should) make our candidates abide by simple campaign financing rules and reward or punish them with our votes as they abide or choose not to do so. But until we as the electorate unite behind “something”, change will never happen.

Congressman Sarbanes  (D-MD) did something critically important for the anti-corruption movement in the past few days: He introduced, with a significant number of co-sponsors, the most ambitious set of ideas for “Citizen Funded Campaigns” that we have seen in many years — The Grassroots Democracy Act.

There are many aspects of this legislation to take into account, but the fundamental characteristic of this plan is “grassroots” which means relying only on public funding (money you and I donate to candidates), in small amounts but, hopefully, in large volume.  This is very similar in nature to the  “Roemer Rules” I wrote about on in my post September 9^th.  It’s worth anaylsis.