Our economy sucks, and things keep getting worse. Who can disagree with that? Politicians can’t be trusted to fix it for the common person.
Only 22% of voters trust politicians, according to the PEW Research Center. America’s trust in both parties and in all branches of government is extremely low. Most Americans vote for the candidate they hate the least, since they don’t like either choice.
Another thing I think both sides of the political spectrum can agree on is that there is too much money controlling our politicians. I have read a lot in conservative media about how George Soros is funding liberal causes of all sorts. These political pundits want him stopped. I have read a lot in liberal media about how the Koch brothers (one passed away, so only Charles Koch is now influencing our government) have hurt environmental causes.
Doesn’t it make sense we should stop all the billionaires from having such a big influence on our legislators, regardless of which policies they are pursuing?
One of the worst forms of money corrupting our politics is what is called “dark money.” Dark money is a term for political spending by organizations that do not have to disclose where it came from. These are often nonprofits set up by ultra rich people or corporations to make sure they get the politicians elected who serve their interests. According to The Brennan Center, there was approximately $1.9 billion of dark money expenditures in the last presidential election.
Is there any reason why we should not make dark money illegal? Wouldn’t life be better without all those negative political ads?
There is also the issue of corporate lobbying. Google AI says there are 20 lobbyists for every congressman in Washington, D.C. Do you think they are making sure that life for the average American is getting better?
There have been a lot of charges of prominent government figures using their insider information about coming legislation to make money in the stock market. This is called insider trading, and it is illegal. Conservative media has charged Democrats with doing this, and liberal media has charged Republicans with doing it. Why don’t we make it illegal for presidents, congressmen and senators to own stocks?
Sure, that will keep the extremely rich from even running. Is that a bad thing?
Let’s work together to fix our political processes in America. People of all political beliefs can agree that the vast amounts of money being spent to influence our legislators have helped wealthy Americans and big corporations at the expense of the rest of us.
Let’s work together and get the big money out of politics. Tell your legislators to write laws to ban dark money. Tell them to set strict limits on campaign contributions from both individuals and corporations. Severely limit corporate lobbying. Ban stock ownership in our federal officials.
Daniel Meekhof
Packwood
