Once a person can clearly state the problems, the solutions becomes clear. With regard to the corrupt bread and circus elections in the United States, Lee Camp makes the problems crystal clear. Note, especially the short campaign season in the U.K. (a matter of weeks) and the fact that in the U.K. TV and radio political ads are banned.
Congress does not care what you think. This sickness of the U.S. political system can be demonstrated in one graph. Bottom line of this research: It doesn't matter what most Americans want their politicians to do.
Josh Silver of Represent.US presents the plan: Here is more. The plan boils down to this:
We are protecting our communities and our country from corruption by passing city, state and federal Anti-Corruption Acts. Problem = Corruption. Solution = Anti-Corruption Act. The American Anti-Corruption Act sets a standard for city, state and federal laws that break money’s grip on politics:
- Stop political bribery by making it illegal for elected officials to raise money from interests they regulate.
- End secret money by mandating full transparency of all political spending.
- Empower voters with an opt-in, individual tax rebate for small political donations.
The City of St. Louis, where I live, will hold its primary elections tomorrow. As usual, reporting on many of the races is scant to nonexistent. Here's a typical example of "reporting" on the elections, this from St. Louis Public Radio, and it provides almost no information about the positions of the candidates. You won't find any meaningful information in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch either. Local TV won't cover the candidates positions either. It's amazing that citizens are being asked to vote in elections where it is so incredibly difficult to learn about the candidates. This is the way things are, year after year. This year I decided to do something about the problem. Based on hundreds of signs appearing on front yards in the Shaw Neighborhood of St. Louis (where I live), two of the Democrat candidates are especially active in the race for Alderman. The incumbent is Stephen Conway. Kevin McKinney is also vying for that office. Rather than rely on the sound-bite information on the yard signs and flyers, I decided to invite both candidates to my house to separately videotape 30-minute discussions of the issues with me. I posted both videos on my neighborhood website, and I have received considerable appreciation from my neighbors for providing this information. My role in offering to produce these videos was that of a citizen journalist. I wanted to do my part to make important information available to voters in an upcoming election. This was a no-brainer, really. Simply post decent quality videos on YouTube where people can hear from the candidates in the privacy and comfort of their own homes.
To sum up this video is the Great American Motto that applies to both elected judges and all other elections: "No, that he handed me a bunch of money won't affect they way I resolve this issue."