Don't like our government?

What a question, right?  I mean, who does like our government of late?  Well, other than the wealthy and corporations who can and do get whatever they want because they can buy our legislators, their legislation, our laws and so, our government.  They love it, sure.  They're lining their pockets.

But us?

And the thing is, so many say they don't know what they or we should do to fix it, to fix the mess that is Washington, DC.

Well, the one thing I think we can all agree on, no matter if we're from the Left or Right or Middle or whatever.

That is, get the money out.

Get the big, ugly, corrupting influence of the money from the wealthy and corporations out of the government.

And to do that, it has to get out of our elections.

To that end, I propose five uncomplicated, clear, intelligent, straight-forward ways we could do just that--get the money out of our government.

First, legislate an end to the earlier ruling by the Supreme Court that is Citizens United .

To say that corporations can and should be able to unload untold millions and billions of dollars of their money into our elections is insanity. It weakens, badly, each of our own opinions and votes.  Corporations only exist for themselves and for their own existence and continued, ever-increasing profits. People exist for people and the nation exists for the betterment of the people. Those different needs and goals are all we need to know about why we need to work and legislate for us and not for corporations.

Second, Make it illegal to go to and from government positions and private companies. We have to kill the very famous "revolving door" from government to corporations and back. Once again, it puts the corporations first and people second, if even there.

Third, pass The American Anti-Corruption Act.

 



If a legislator is considering legislation that would effect a company, that same legislator shouldn't be able to take money or any remuneration of any sort from them. It makes sense. Again, it's not complicated.

Fourth, we have to fight to end campaign contributions, period, in the country. We have to get the money out of our election system so we consequently, get it also out of our government. We have to eliminate the legal ability for companies and the wealthy to give our representatives these bribes, these "contributions", this money sjust so they can buy whatever legislation they want, country--and people--be damned.  Note:  we also need to get this accomplished on the state level, state by state, so we, the people, win there, too.

Finally, in order to make the need for the money go away, we need to shorten our elections.  This is doable, eminently doable. England wisely did it years ago. We just need to legislate that campaigns are--what?--one month, two months long?  By law. It only goes against what we're used to, that's all. It doesn't make sense any longer.

And none of these take away anyone's right to free speech. They may still speak all they'd like. There would just be parameters to the money and the length of the campaigns, that's it.

So let's get started.  Let's make 2014 the year we begin this big, smart, necessary work.

Here's to us.

Link:  Citizens United : Dedicated to restoring our government to citizen