Message From The Council On Foreign Relations
A common theme found within most articles that appear here relates to the absurd cost of US elections. Should it cost a billion dollars or more to elect a US President? And to make matters worse, the need for big money in political campaigns has entered into local municipal elections. How can we as a free society continue to afford overly expensive elections?
The mainstream news media will lightly cover which candidate has raised the most or least amount of money and perhaps a story or two will be written about their respective campaign donors. If you’re a college student and you need an important topic to research and write about, contact your state public disclosure commission and focus your research not on where the money comes from but who’s pocket does it end up in. To get an even bigger picture, take your research to the local media and ask, How much money has your media company received in the last 10 years from the selling of all political ads? I guarantee that this is one of the big issues that you’ll never hear about on television news or read about in any newspaper. What you might also uncover is how some of the campaign money goes full circle. Meaning the donor and receiver are one in the same.
The final question we should all be asking is, Has the mere cost of political campaigns worked as a deterrent? Meaning, honest and ethical citizens won’t seek public office because they cannot afford it and are unwilling to compromise their core values, beliefs and principles in exchange for required campaign money.
The US Supreme Court has ruled that political money equals free speech and is therefore protected under the first amendment of the US Constitution. Would the founding fathers agree? Would Thomas Jefferson say, America is nation of the wealthy, for the wealthy and by the wealthy? Perhaps the Supreme Court needs to travel across America. What they will discover may come as a complete surprise. The majority are neither wealthy or happy with the complete sellout of America’s political process.
Partisanship, Republican Or Democrat, Is Getting America Nowhere.
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