Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Campaigns

Watching the Republican debates,though entertaining,immediately triggers alarm.It quickly becomes pretty obvious that our campaign system must be drastically changed.These candidates have nothing in common with the majority of citizens.They are all rich compared to the average.Why?Because the campaign system is designed that way.The entire system must be scrapped.How can we do that?It will be very difficult because the avenue of change has to bypass the governors.They don't want change.

Any discussion must also start from scratch.We,the general public,cannot be governed by only the rich.Rich people don't want you to become rich.They want you to keep them rich and richer.Could you even have a conversation with them?a normal conversation?What do you have in common?They simply don't have the same problems or interests as you do.

Watching the rich is like watching a movie about the rich.At some point you wonder about the basics.Don't these people work?How do they have the time?Where do they get their money?Don't they get sick?Don't they have the day to day problems thatconsume most of our time?Are their worries all abstract?

How can a campaigner simply go from place to place talking to people?Could you?Think about it.Work to them is getting money from you so that they don't have to work.How can they relate to you?How can someone that doesn't have to worry about survival tell you how to survive.

If you have the time to be a member of a group,organization,other than your own family-if even that is intact-how does that function?Include your family.Narrow it down to groups of friends,associates,strangers.How do they function?Do we have rich people with nothing in common organizing our activities,telling us how to do it.Of course not.Why should it be so difficult in government?Rich people will relate to rich people and rich people's problems...and they aren't the same as ours.

Representatives should be representative.Anyone should be able to run for public office.Anyone should be able to run for president.So we must not limit that possibility to only the rich.The general campaign fund originated to allow that appearance,but that didn't last long,did it?Well,lets go back to that premiss,but limit the candidates to that amount.Any candidate will have the same amount of money and be limited to that amount.That would be a start.

Length of campaigns is another issue.The campaign length must also be limited.That can be arbitrated,but it definitely shouldn't be longer than six months.We shouldn't stop rich people from campaigning on their own,but the actual campaign would be limited to amount and length:no outside campaign funds,pacs,tax deductible contributions,etc.-an equal playing field for all.But it must be equal!

This constant,continuous campaign must be corrected and it has to start with inflexible limits.The rest of the issues can be addressed later.Money and time have become the primary issues.

How can this be done?