More and more we are trending toward oligarchy, where a network of tremendously wealthy people exert far too much control of our country, through making large campaign contributions to candidates of their choice.
Every person running for political office knows that they run an unnecessary risk if they significantly annoy the oligarchy. The oligarchs can always pour money into the coffers of the opposing candidate.
Something that reduces the power of the oligarchy is that it is not a monolithic group, because on some issues, the tremendously wealthy disagree, like Warren Buffet advocating for higher taxes on millionaires or George Soros supporting Barack Obama. Or some wealthy folk who out of real conviction donate only to the Democratic party, unlike the many who donate to both parties, to hedge their bets.
This is why we desperately need campaign finance reform. So that we can actually become a true democracy, and not a mockery of democracy, a faux democracy. (Remember, we were founded as a republic, and not as a true democracy where both males and females over a certain age have the right to vote).
Personally I would like to see legislation that strictly forbids campaign donations of more than $100 by actual human beings, and that does not allow corporations to contribute to campaigns,and that prohibits the agents of any foreign power from contributing to campaigns.
I can hear folks wearily say “Would be nice but won’t ever happen. The mainstream media derives too much revenue from elections. The powers that be will never allow it.”
Well… I think a critically valuable public service that Daily Kos is capable of performing is to stimulate wide scale discussion of this kind of radical proposal, to see if it can be made to fly. I propose that right after the 2016 election, a major major major effort should begin to try to force political candidates to start genuinely supporting campaign finance reform. Kossacks should push everyone they know to vote in primary elections — making support of true campaign finance reform a litmus test in voting for candidates. Left leaning organizations like trade unions should be pressured to bombard their members with the idea. Liberal news media should be pressured to support it, through talking with their editorial boards.
Maybe this is pie in the sky but surely it is worth a try……
[Why wait to campaign for campaign finance reform until after Tuesday November 8 2016 ? Because we need to see Democrats raise a whole passel of money prior to election day, and not be hamstrung by publicly committing to campaign finance reform]
Update 1:52pm Nov 27. I am a trifle surprised that this diary has drawn only negative comments up until this time. I would have thought that most Kossacks would agree with most of what I have said, if not all. So I am just wondering why the commenters so far seem to be opposed to what I have proposed.