Elections and Money

I'm not thinking this is what our Founding Fathers had in mind. The current condition of our governments (Federal and State) fool us into thinking we, the people actually cast ballots for candidates and somehow the idea of a representative government has lasted for well over 200 years.

In reality, money has taken over the electoral process and yes, Virginia: Money can and does buy elections. How, you ask?

Political campaigns are based on getting information out about their candidate. One Congressman told me decades ago that name recognition in election was priority number one, and further, you had to present your name at least 7 times to the electorate before they were really familiar with your name. This could include TV and press coverage (news and purchased ads), lawn signs, door-to-door campaigning, billboards, bumper stickers and so on. The idea was to have your name visible to as many people as much as possible.

This, of course, takes money, and we all know  ... money is the root of all evil.

Or is it? Google Ayn Rand's idea of what money is (Atlas Shrugged, Francisco's speech about money) and you may come away with a different view. To me. it's a survival tool and just like any other tool, it can be used for both good and evil.

Back to the topic: Political money. In the last Congressional election in my district, well over $20 million dollars was spent. The vast majority of that money came from outside the district. The Republican incumbent was outspent by at least 2 to 1 and lost by less than 4,000 votes out of a quarter-million or so votes. Money made the difference. The job pays $174,000/year and to see $20 million spent tells anybody with an IQ over room temperature it's not about the pay, it's about the power. Specifically, it's about the block of power. If you can't tell, there's one hell of a power struggle going on in this country right now. While it may seem removed from you at the moment, if it continues look for it to come to a city or town near you real soon now.

When that kind of money is spent, something is expected in return: An assured vote. There is no way that kind of money is spent without an expectation of a return. That means that what the district may really want and need are very often bypassed in a vote to repay political debt, not advance the district. To influence the perception, the bought and paid-for spin doctors go to work transforming shit into shinola. Very often, these spin doctors publish newspapers or air TV "news" shows.

And so the winners are a bloc of people who don't live here and really don't give a damn about you or me, our daily lives, our daily struggles and most of all, our daily needs.

I have a solution, and it's not to completely remove money from elections.

It's to remove outside the district money from elections.

Business and political PACs would be the first to fall under this idea. Raise the money from the people and businesses that actually are in the district. NY Congressional district 22 is quite large and has a good mix of both inside its borders. For a business to donate, I think it should have an actual brick and mortar presence in the district. Post Office box and internet presence businesses would be excluded in my thinking.

This, of course, would lessen the amount of money spent on these races, and I'm not thinking this is a bad thing.

It's quite clear money raised from outside my Congressional district won the race last November. Much of this money came from New York City and believe me, NYC is not interested in what is good for Upstate; it is interested in what is good for them. To return the ability of the district to control its Representative, outside money should be removed from the equation.

And, as I predicted in an earlier blog, our freshman Democrat mendicant wasted no time in holding out the tin cup, as in this begging for alms plea found on a DC street recently:

Until the practice listed above is ended, we will always be in line behind the large financial interests that really don't give a shit about you or me.

Don't hold your breath on this one. I don't think I'll live to ever see it changed, and that's ok. When the power struggle is over in this country and one side definitively wins, then it might be time to talk about political financial reform. Until then, I can only hope.