Our government is far more bought and sold than we knew

There was a terrific program on NPR and KCUR today at 10 am on "This American Life." It was (is, because you can still go online and hear it and I recommend you do) called "Take the Money and Run for Office." It tells how so much worse our political situation is across the nation. The lobbyists and corporate representatives and people from Pacs and Super-Pacs can now go into a representatives' office and simply tell them they need to support such-and-such legislation or else they'll unleash their advertising money on the representative. Here's a quote from the story from Senator Dick Durbin: "Most Americans would be shocked — not surprised, shocked — if they knew how much time a U.S. Senator spends raising money." It gets worse, too. Here's another quote from the story: "We imagine lobbyists stalking the halls of Congress, trying to influence lawmakers with cash. But often, it's the other way around: Members of Congress stalk lobbyists, looking for contributions." It's so bad and the corruption so pervasive they don't even have to spend the money. All they have to do is threaten to spend it. It's that bad. It's that disgusting. That is one vile, badly broken system, folks. We--the people--need to stand up and demand "campaign contributions" are killed and the Citizens United ruling by the Supreme Court is overturned--and as soon as possible, of course. Please go to these links and hear and see how bad it really is and why we must demand change: http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/461/take-the-money-and-run-for-office; http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/; http://sunlightfoundation.com/