Without a crystal ball, and an early deadline, I don’t know who won the presidential election. Either way, the country needs to pull together. The fabric of the nation has been torn, not ripped apart, but seriously frayed.
Neither major party candidate has done much to bring the nation together. Both candidates played their political base against the other. Trump was labeled a potty-mouthed machismo creep and Clinton a lazy bald-faced liar. And those were the nice things each candidate said about the other.
As acrimonious as the past year has been, the winner of the election will have a lot of hard work to do.
So what needs to change?
How about shortening the campaign to six months, three would be better and two weeks might be perfect. Right about now I would be all in for a 24-hour campaign with no TV ads, just a one-hour debate with the candidates making their points with purple colored thumb puppets.
Much of the harmful damage done to “We the People” came from the endless string of negative political ads paid for by PACs and Super PACs.
As far as the political action committees (PACs), let’s call them in, take away their keys to the TV advertising community, and send them packing.
What does a PAC do? It is a group of people or industries or issue-oriented organizations formed to raise money for a candidate that is likely to advocate for that group’s interest.
PACs then would be great if they were put together by orphans or homeless people or by groups of kids who wanted to save puppies, but since none of them have any money, they have no—or very petite— influence. Instead, we are stuck with Wall Street, Big Oil, Big Business, George Soros, the Koch brothers, and all of the others who have microscopic regard for those of us who don’t live in their worlds. And frankly, that would be most Americans.
Take the PAC money out and leave it out forever.
Super PACs are even worse.
Super PACs need to go the way of the Dodo bird. Fully extinct. The reality of the politics in America is that big money controls who will, or who will not be elected. Good people with good ideas who wish to serve politically can serve lunch at the Salvation Army kitchen. They won’t get a pass to the big time unless they are rich or have someone to bankroll them.
Super PACs were born following the July 2010 federal court decision in SpeechNow.org v. Federal Election Commission.
According to the Center for Responsive Politics, Super PACs may raise unlimited sums of money from corporations, unions, associations, and individuals. They take that money and then spend it to advocate for or against political candidates. And unlike traditional PACs, Super PACs can’t donate money directly to political candidates. A Super PAC’s spending must not be coordinated with that of any candidate they are trying to benefit. Which sounds nice but does anyone believe the Super PACs and major parties aren’t in some collusion?
Campaigns should have to be run on ideas and pragmatic programs, not prosaic platitudes and profuse punditry.
Clinton said—as she accepted millions of dollars from Political Action Committees (PACs) that she will seek to stop the big donors from being able to legally make campaign donations. Hopefully, if she wins she will keep her promise and it won’t have been just election year fodder for the masses to feed off of.
If Trump wins, he has also pledged to end Super PACs.
There is plenty that needs to change about politics as they are now practiced in this country. Let’s hope for the sake of us all the younger generation doesn’t give up hope. The last year was enough to make even the toughest cynic cringe. Time for some changes. Send the PACs packing and shorten the campaigns. It’s a start, but much more needs to be done to restore the beleaguered voters.
Leave a Reply