Our next big fight

[hephaestionaz]

Dear MoveOn member,
After the passage of health care, one of the top priorities in Congress now is campaign finance reform. Congress must close the floodgates of big money into our elections after the Supreme Court legalized unlimited political spending by corporations.1
Unfortunately, some Democrats are already calling for a small potatoes bill

Comments

[jp5040]

Basically limiting political parties to a total budget on a percapita basis (how many people in the state you are trying to get your message to) would help. Ie - no more than $1 per person per month could be spent on the TOTAL budget (that includes wages). Then raise the money as fast as you like - if Bill Gates pays for the whole shot in Washington state then so be it. If they raise it by door to door hat in hand politics then that is also a choice

[hephaestionaz]

I wouldn't oppose a set limit using some formula that effectively caps campaign spending, but I would still be extremely concerned with a system that allows corporations unlimited spending.

Another key difference is that we don't have a Parliament here, so there isn't the coalition building that goes on in Canada and other countries. It's either Democrat or Republican with a few Independents thrown in. Since the mid 90's our congress has started to act like a parliament, but increasingly the Democrats are the only ones that have centrist, liberal and conservative members. The Republicans just keep moving further and further right.

[jp5040]

Canada had the first democratic elected Parliament in the British Empire - it is old and crappy - it actually serves the same as the US system to create false majorities therefore consensus governance is not an option. The current minority government is existing due to a vacuum in the center. There is only highly polarized right or a fractured left. No middle since budget and nationalist politics broke the center (Liberals).