So my wife had an interesting idea.......since elections depend so much on who can raise the most money, why not make it so its ok to donate as much money to the candidate of your choice as you want but all funds raised go into a joint account. Make it so that if you meet the requirements for getting on the ballet you have access to that money. Lets suppose that candidate "A" raises 8 million and the opponent raises 10 million. The account now has 18 million. That means each candidate has 9 million available for their campaigns. If a third candidate meets the requirements of getting on the ticket but only raises 3 million he will have access to one third of the total funds raised, or 7 million. This would level the playing field. There would be a tempered incentive to financially support the candidate of your choice. It would eleminate "buying" representation in government. If every cent spent on the race had to pass through this account and independent accounting set in place more transparency would come to our election races. No advertising or tangible goods could be donated if they can't be shared equally. The only thing that could be donated to individual candidates would be man hours of volunteers. And when the race is over any funds left in the joint account would go directly to funding a public need like infrastructure or education. It's just an idea but I think I like it.
The very fact that conditions in our nation have descended to the current level of absurd abuses toward the great mass of our population should persuade most people that nobody, and certainly not the president, is leading this nation so as to improve the lot of the masses, or to strengthen our nation's fundamental economic structure.
Our country is in its current predicament of absurdities and inequalities because most politicians have become self-serving predators ... bought by the real powers ... deluded and possessed with excesses of ignorance and stupidity. Most politicians are a miserable lot ... lacking good sense, principles, or a sense of justice. Thank goodness there are some who buck the shameful trend to greed and idiocy ... who seek legislation for the average citizen. Observe the behavior of politicians such as Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren.
The real power and control lies not within the congress, nor in the executive, but in the hands of a relatively few oligarchic predators ... plutocrats ... entrenched in large corporations, in wall street and banking, and some, even in the military ... individuals intent only on maintaining their grip upon power ... on making decisions to further increase their power and wealth without concern for the well-being of the great mass of the lower and the middle classes.
Power and greed is the order of the day with these predators. The electoral process we engage every two years is a farce ... a game played by us all, and encouraged by the bought and corrupt mainstream media. The electoral process allows progress in insignificant areas only, feigning democracy, while avoiding progress in areas of great importance, such as making crucial decisions necessary to generate jobs for those willing and able to work, to engage a fair and effective health care system, to engage the economy so as to reduce the huge inequalities in income and wealth ... to enlarge and strengthen the middle class, and to avoid the senseless, destructive, and inhuman military adventures that have been the habit over many decades.
While it is admirable to encourage improvements in the election process -- as long as the corrupt and the powerful are free, and escape prosecution, they will continue to exercise the real power in our nation ... forcing wars of intervention, fabricating scenarios to ensure their own agenda of maintaining power and gaining obscene levels of wealth, without regard for the mass of workers, who are the real producers in any economy.
The mass of citizens of the lower and middle classes suffer injustices and endure deprivations every day as a consequence of the abusive power of the large corporations, who rape the land and destroy the environment, who continue to send jobs overseas, and who avoid by any means possible paying billions in taxes, thereby shifting the tax burden to the middle and lower classes.
The system is rigged to continually extract resources and wealth from the average worker, and to shift it to the entrenched plutocracy holding the real power. The one percent scenario is evidence of this.
Many of us will hopefully live to see the day when, by some evolving conditions, the pressure to seek resolution to the injustices toward the average worker increases, forcing action to prosecute the powerful and greedy predators who delight in gaining ever more riches, even though doing so destroys the economy, and thus the ability of the average worker to make a livable wage.
Of course, upon prosecution, it is hoped that the predators found guilty of the more serious crimes in their quest for obscene riches, will have been handed -- your guessed it -- death sentences. And again -- you guessed it -- it is hoped that they will be given the choice of being hanged, beheaded, or shot (the HBS choice) -- and that in order to persuade others that it might be best to avoid the quest for obscene riches at the expense of economic stability, the executions would appear on a reality show called "JAW" (Justice for the Average Worker), or "JAC" (Justice for the Average Citizen).
But whether we call it JAC or JAW, the new reality show should be re-run every year to remind the weaker predators, obsessed with seeking obscene wealth by any means, even those destructive to society, that the guillotine waits, the rope hangs loose, and the squad stands ready before the wall.
Interesting idea Kitester, I agree that politics has become all about raising money and winning elections. I don't know if anyone will ever go for the idea of a collective money pot though, because the top two candidates would end up funding their third party opponents, who would also have almost no incentive to raise his/her own funds.
You might be interested in this article about represent.us who created a fake candidate in Kentucky to address money in politics: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/07/14/gil-fulbright-kentucky_n_5585160.html
Their basic idea for changing contributions is that everyone would get a tax rebate of "x" dollars to donate to whatever candidate or group of candidates they choose, because as it stands we all have the same limits on how much we can donate, but not all of us can actually afford to donate that amount.
Personally, I've decided that I don't want my campaign to be about raising funds to waste on things like yard signs and marketing firms, so I've decided to not take monetary donations at all. You can learn more about that here: http://youtu.be/dTGkTKnCaC8