Democracy is Not for Sale

With the oil spill in the Gulf it has become common knowledge that President Obama received campaign funding from BP. Senator John McCain also received campaign contributions for BP in the 2008 presidential race. This is common practice by corporations looking for favor in our political process. Wall Street does it all the time even in small races and often contributes to both parties.

Attorneys routinely contribute in order to affect the democratic process, thus influencing the laws that they argue. It would be hard to debate that the corporations or the lawyers contribute expecting nothing in return. Whether Democrat or Republican the groups have legally bought influence. The elected could go against a contributor as is the case with BP but it would have to be something like the oil spill in which the politician would incur too much risk to cover for them. The small votes that fly under the radar of the constituency are often favorable to the contributor. This nickle and dime influence eventually builds to the point of risking the public to the point of a oil spill or Wall Street disaster. How can the voters believe a sizable contribution will not be considered for a future campaign?

In my relatively small part of the world a candidate in the state legislature received nearly $350,000 from contributions. This is for a position that pays little and only meets four months a year. It is difficult to see that the contributors have not bought influence in issues most voters don't even know about until affected. With the incredible amount of legislation on a local, state and national level it is impossible for the taxpayer to have time to read and assess every bill. With the verbiage involved and pork barrel projects many of our politicians push through laws that their constituency would not like.

This process has left many feeling powerless and giving up feeling that their best interests are not considered. Those of us that take an active interest and write or call our politicians are often brushed off as being insignificant. Many times there is no response and when there is a response it is more often than not something written to confuse the issue. It has become evident that the contributors are more important that the citizens.

It is time to push our politicians no matter which party they are affiliated with to construct a constitutional amendment to limit contributions to an amount on our tax returns. This would insure that the citizens had a part in the process and eliminate the propaganda ads we all have to endure every election season. It is high time we unseat the corporations from control of our government and the attorneys from voting themselves a raise at our expense. America is having a hard time competing in the global market and cutting the massive contributions out of corporate America would help to make these companies competitive. Litigation and insurance is also a major cost in our economy and we need to cut the lawyers out of getting laws passed that they profit from.

It seems like a child buying a present for Christmas for someone else and getting the accolades. We are the parents that are financing the corporations and lawyers to give a contribution and get a picture with the candidate. They are using our money to get these people in office so they can spend the money on our vote. The worst part of the equation is that we hold these companies in our retirement accounts so they are abusing us several times over. Let's put the pressure on the politicians to cut out the middleman and give us democracy back.