Want to buy a vote or two? Want to buy a Senator, Congressman or President? They are all for sale in America.
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January 8, 2007: It is estimated this coming year's presidential elections will cost nearly ONE BILLION DOLLARS for the two sides! Taking care of the campaign contributors after the election is going to end up costing you and me and the other taxpayers a whole lot of money. Count on it.
You see, as long as we have a system wherein people can BUY votes with their campaign contributions, your government doesn’t really work for you, it works for the people with the biggest checkbooks. You don’t think rich people donate all those millions out of the goodness of their hearts, do you? If so, the joke is on you. Read on:
UPDATE: December 3, 2009: In the 2008 elections, Obama raised over 600 million dollars to McCain's 300 million. Obama told the public this money came from individual small donations but that was an out and out lie. Less than 15% came from small donors, the rest came from very rich individuals, very rich corporations and very rich foreign donors, some of whom were illegal. Most of the billionaires in this country actually supported Barack Obama and their support contributed mightily to his winning. He now supports legislation that will repay those supporters for their generosity. After all, what goes around -
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That's why I am titling this article:
Your Government Is For Sale to the Highest Bidder
Because it is and it has been for a very long time. But we CAN stop it if we have the will.
Most rich and powerful people are betting we don't.
A CALL TO GRASSROOTS AMERICA
Money buys votes.
And the more money you have, the more votes you can buy. Folks, don't fool yourself, politics is all about the money needed to run for office. Money is what lets Johnny run and money is what undermines our government.
But we can stop it if we want to. How, you ask? Well, it's really rather simple: let's fund all our national elections with public money. Tightly regulated but fair election rules with binding regulations together with taxpayer funding can kick the money changers out of the temple. And we all will be better off for that.
You’ve heard it before: money talks and bullshit walks. Sorry to be so graphic but it's the easiest way to make the point: America’s politicians are bought and paid for every single day they are in office, starting with Day #01. If we don't wake up and stop it soon, it will be too late if it isn't already.
Let’s start at the very beginning: Right now [2008], a presidential election is coming up. This election is going to cost the candidates hundreds of millions of dollars each. So where will the candidates get all that money? That’s easy. They will get it from the people that support them? Okay, so let me ask you this:
Question: Why would an individual or an organization donate so much money to a political candidate so that HE can get himself elected to a very nice job?
Answer: Because they love their country and think this guy would be swell in the job?
No? You don’t like that answer? Okay, how about this one:
Answer: Because they expect a quid pro quo arrangement in return.
That’s much better. And what exactly is a quid pro quo arrangement?
Answer: That’s a "you scratch my back and I'll scratch yours" arrangement.
Aha! You are saying these people donate their money to gain influence with the newly elected candidate. I think you are on the right track.
Question: But why? Why would they want that influence?
Answer: Oh that’s real easy: they hope to use their newfound influence to make money for themselves – more than they donated. After all, we all know there is no free lunch.
You pass the course! And it’s the same for all parties and with all elections. It’s just a matter of degree. Elections are expensive today and if you want to have a chance to win, you need the money to run an effective campaign. And what do you have to sell to raise the money you need? That's easy too. It’s not your house. It’s not your car. And it’s not your kids. It’s your vote!
You offer to vote the “right” way when it counts – you offer POLITICAL FAVORS in return for that money.
And that, boys and girls, is what’s wrong with our system of government. It's bought and paid for and because of that, once the election is over you will be forgotten and those who contributed will be remembered. The more they gave, the more they will be remembered.
At this point, let me enter a caveat: I am not here to blame the politicians. My guess is they HATE having to beg for money. It’s just that they have no choice.
They have no choice because that’s the way the system is set up – money talks. For that reason, I say it’s the system that has to be changed even more than the players.
FACT: Did you know that beginning the day after an election, half of every congressman's day is spent soliciting money for his or her NEXT election. You didn’t? Well, now you do.
Instead of doing the job for which you pay him (or her), your “congressman” is entertaining powerful individuals and special interest groups every day of the week in order to solicit money from them to pay off his last election bills and raise money for his next political campaign. Whether his next election is a month, a year or four years from now, your “congressperson” begins raising money for it the day after he takes office. That’s why this Article is titled: "Your Government Is For Sale To The Highest Bidder".
But before you round up your friends and head for Washington to do in your congressman - or worse yet, your President – please remember what I told you, it's not their fault – it’s the system that is at fault. If you get elected and you don’t want to retire young – and few do – you have to do what everyone else is doing: you have to set up your financial campaign network. You have to raise money.
And that’s our problem. The current system encourages political manipulation, corruption and dishonesty and no one gets to escape its clutches. If you want to run for national office, you need the money. If you want to raise that money, you need a product to sell. And the only thing you have to sell in politics – the only thing that’s worth anything - is your vote. You learn to live with that simple truth or you find another line of work.
Okay, now that we all see the problem, does anyone see the solution? Let’s take a look.
I am today announcing that in the upcoming elections, we should vote every incumbent out of office. We need to shake up the system. They all are on the take. I am also sick to death of having so many lawyers in our government. They are too slick, too self-serving, and too dishonest for me. I want more – a lot more - regular Americans in Congress. Therefore I am strongly suggesting you vote against your incumbent and send someone brand new to Washington.
Then maybe we can get them to chance the rules under which we now operate.
I know it won’t be easy. In fact, I know it will be exceptionally difficult. You see, tons of wealthy people – and special interest groups - like the system just the way it is and they will fight like hell to keep it this way.
Who are they? Who do you think they are. They are the people who control your government by donating big money to political campaigns. Americans and foreigners alike, internationalists, corporate CEO's with dollars for souls – big-time labor leaders – teachers unions - all of them.
Remember the Chinese money in the Clinton elections? Why do you think they were shoveling money to an American for an American election? I’ll tell you, they were buying influence. I call it buying America. Notice what China has gotten in return? It's sickening. The Chinese are now making billions out of trade with America. It turns out to have been a good investment for them but a bad one for us.
Obama is another one who got big money from foreign governments. And once again, they benefited while we lost.
Look, I am not going to belabor the point. I am sure by now you understand what is going on and how dangerous it is. So you must be asking “what can I do about it”? The answer is work for controlled national elections paid for by the taxpayer with no outside money whatsoever, neither hard nor soft.
Can we do it? Can we change the system? I don't know. Every special interest group in America will be against it. Both political parties will fight it. Broadcasters and telecasters and maybe some of the talk show hosts and the print media people will sound off against it. Why not, they are all part of the current dirty system. They will call us names, say we are stupid and protest that we are flirting with national economic suicide. Whatever it takes. They may even call us racists and say that somehow this is an attack on minorities. How? Who knows? But they won't care. They will do anything and say anything it takes to stop us from changing the current system. But we can prevail, we can do it.
How? By banning together to demand change, that’s how. There are tons of us, few of them. We can demand federal funding for all national elections. We can also demand restrictions on how much money is spent and who can speak for the candidate. Let’s say as a suggestion that in the final 2 weeks of a campaign, the only person that can run a political advertisement on behalf of a candidate is the candidate himself or herself. I am tired of hired help telling me what a candidate stands for, let the candidate tell me.
The people - you and I - have to come together and bring pressure on our congressmen to pass this legislation with appropriate controls. Our group will have no democrats, no republicans, no liberals, no conservatives – just Americans trying to take back their government from the greedy, vicious, money-grabbing thieves that now control it. (That would be the groups offering the bribes, not the politicians taking them.)
Once your congressmen and even your president is no longer dependent on these people for campaign money, everything will change and for the better. Useless 'payback' fat-cat legislation will be eliminated forever. So will self-sustaining subsidies and pork barrel 'earmark' legislation. Congress can stop begging for money and go back to working full time for the people who elected them, instead of the people who bought them.
And the cost of government will go down, not up. Once they are sure it will get done, the politicians will welcome the change with open arms. No one likes to beg for money least of all the people that work their way to Washington. After all, they do have their pride.
But the sad truth is that most of the people in Washington believe the American people are too dysfunctional, too apathetic, too wildly diversified politically, too DUMB to ever come together for any one single purpose including this one. They count on that. In fact, they depend on it.
And they're probably right. Special interest groups will stay in the fight as long as it takes to win while “We the People”, with so many other things to do, often tire and quit under pressure. That’s why nothing ever changes. That’s what they depend on.
But it doesn't have to be that way. All of you start calling or mailing your congressmen and women to vote for taxpayer funding of national elections with appropriate controls. Then, if they hesitate, tell them you'll vote them out of office. If they believe you they will listen.
But will they believe you? Probably not, not yet anyway. So we need to wake them up. And the way to do that is to vote every incumbent out of office in the upcoming fall elections. That will most definitely get their attention.
We don’t need a bunch of lawyers or Ivy School left-leaning, reluctant-Americans in our halls of Congress. We’ve had that for years. Let’s try it this time with the local folks. I think we’ll be better off.
JOEY
Welcome to Joey’s Newspage, where people come to exercise their minds
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