which candidates get equal time?
Hello all. I hope all is well. I was thinking today about how much I would have loved to run for our vacant Congressional seat. There is one guy who lost the last election, 4 years ago (I think) and (to the best of my knowledge) has not had a job since. I am already talking like a politician. So, this guy Dan Maffei ran against Jim Walsh (R-NY). Walsh was an incumbent, and has been Congressing for years, making friends in high places. So, Maffei lost to him by a very narrow margin, and then started planning for his next run. This idea of a professional politician is new. It is laughable that these “politicians†so often invoke the idea of our founding fathers, who were farmers. If pressed for another occupation, they may have said soldiers? Patriots? Certainly the last way they would describe themselves would be as politicians.party leaders and heard nothing. Actually, I heard less than nothing. Our broken system is dependent upon the same old people giving money to the same old people to run for office. Then, when elected, to whom do they serve? I’ve got an idea for you: Send your congressman an email and say, “Hey, I voted for you, let’s have lunch.†It will not go very well. If, however you have scratched a 6 figure check, you will have the opportunity for lunch, dinner, night at the mansion, you name it.
Until elections are publicly funded, and networks donate equal time to the candidates, the system gets worse, not better. The problem then becomes which candidates get equal time? This is a real problem for the 2 major parties, and it would spell their demise. If the 3rd party candidates had a level playing field from which to pitch their ideas, the old hacks can call it a day, and this country can go forward. Why can’t we let the people decide? Why do we need to spend a billion (with a B) dollars to decide which of the 2 establishment candidates is less evil? The money goes in a circle, and if you are in that circle, you have no problem with it. If you are not in the circle, you have no power to stop the wheel from turning. It’s all very neat you see. NBC reports on which candidate has raised the most money, like a scoreboard. Why? Well, they know where most of this money is being spent, with them. So, when they put out a story saying McCain raises $25M by asking Palin aboard, they are forcing Obama to raise more money to compete, and most of it goes in their (Network Media) pockets. Can you think of a better way to spend a billion (with a b) dollars than listening to these fools call each other names? I can. A billion ways.
It makes me sad that this is what it has come to, but it indeed has come here. The system is broke, and the the game is rigged. We have players umpiring, and scorekeepers coaching. The least important factor in all of this is the vote. It is all about the money, and it is sad sad sad. My mom told me I could not run because I have skeletons in my closet. But, she was wrong. The reason I can not run is because I don’t have millions of dollars, nor could I ask people who I like and respect to donate money to the cause. Wealth should not be a requisite requirement in a democracy.
On a similar but unrelated note, I am going to see an Obama rally hosted by the (formally Grateful) Dead, and The Allman Brothers. It is on October 13th at Penn State . It will be a blast, and Obama will not be within 300 miles of the place is my prediction.
Keep it real folks, I am getting down off of my soapbox now…
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I think you hit the nail on the head: only people with money matter in this country. It’s a sad state of affairs indeed.
The game does seem rigged a lot of the times. And as you pointed out, the people with the most money — like big industries with lots of lobbyists — win.
I hate to sound like such a downer, cause I am a really happy person, it is just that this promise that this country was founded on, for the people, by the people are just words now. I will applaud the fact that a by all accounts regular guy has risen through the ranks, despite constant struggle and doubting. The stars have aligned (both literally and figuratively) for Obama. Now, if he is elected, lets see what he does with it. He has recieved more donations from more people than anyone in the history of presidential politics. He is a constitutional scholar. Sometimes it seems the office is bigger than the person, and seems to overwhelm the president. I just hopw that if elected, Obama remembers where he came from, and undoes some of the injustices we have lived with for years.