The “free market” is not free — but for large corporations, the very wealthy, and their special interest foundations — it’s quite reasonable. For pennies on the dollar, these wealthy elites have leveraged our counterproductive campaign financing laws to install acquiescent legislators, regulators and judges who use their position to increase the burgeoning wealth of their donors.
Eager to appease their affluent overlords through legislation, re-regulation and judicial rulings, these so-called “public servants” have transformed the free market into a publicly-funded ATM for the affluent and a perpetual wealth generator for their heirs.
The costs of this sweeping transfer of wealth has fallen on America’s dwindling and endangered middle class. In 2013, the median American household earned less than it did in 1989, when adjusted for inflation. In 2014, more than two-thirds of Americans were living from paycheck to paycheck, and in a recent federal survey, 47% of respondents said that if they needed $400 for an emergency, they would have to borrow the money, sell a possession or do without.
Meanwhile, six Walmart heirs hold more wealth than 42% of Americans combined (more than 136 million US citizens). The average salary of CEOs in major US corporations has grown to 354 times that of their company’s average worker. In 1978 the ratio in the US was only 30 to one.
This gradual but relentless transfer of wealth from those who have little to those who have much is not a reflection of the value that the rich have brought to society, but instead, it reflects the influence they have wielded over the American political system at both the state and federal levels.
How long will we allow the corrupting influence of money to cripple American democracy? We citizens have the power to change the process if we agree on a workable alternative and summon the will to implement it.
The Problem
Current campaign funding rules exacerbate the corrosive influence of money in politics by allowing (even encouraging) an onslaught of paid political advertising funded by wealthy donors to elect lawmakers and judges who will do their bidding. Whether the money is funneled through a candidate’s campaign committee, their political party, a special interest group masquerading as a “think tank” or an unregulated super PAC promoting its own agenda, such paid advertising gives the candidate with the most money the clear advantage. Such advertising was recently condoned as “free speech” by the US Supreme Court in the Citizens United ruling. This ruling is an assault on the spirit of a government “by the people, for the people” with equal opportunity for all. Advertising is not free speech— it’s paid speech— and those who can’t afford it are rendered speechless. Paid political advertising should be abolished.
Such advertising enables unworthy candidates to pirate elections with deceptive ads that distort the issues and demonize their opponents. Such lopsided and deceitful advertising has given unfair advantage to those who excel at fundraising and influence peddling. As long as money is the key differentiator in politics, would-be politicians who value justice, integrity and equality more than wealth and power have little chance of getting elected.
Currently, presidential candidates must raise more than a million dollars each week to fund their advertising campaigns, and even congressional races can cost over $40 million. Since the largest contributors are corporations, partisan foundations and special interest groups, it’s no wonder that most every bill before congress is packed with paybacks, subsidies, tax loopholes and preferential regulatory policies that favor the rich. Attempts to fix the campaign-funding debacle have been thwarted by incumbents who have a vested interest in maintaining the status quo.
The Solution
The only way to end the corrosive influence of money in politics is for citizens to take the lead in changing the way campaigns are funded, and Washington College is perfectly situated to lead the charge. Founded and funded by George Washington himself, the college’s first benefactor and board member was the only president ever to put the country first with a self-imposed term limit — a towering example of commitment to democratic principles that no politician since has measured up to.
The leadership and students of Washington College, along with Maryland politicians and their staffs, could draft a bill crafted to bar paid political advertising and to establish a fair and open, public forum for selecting the legislators who represent all Americans, not just the wealthy.
Washington College has the heritage and influence to champion a campaign financing reform bill that could garner support from thousands of students at other universities. Through the years, students across America have helped to drive social change from civil rights and women’s rights, to ending the military draft. In recent years many American youths have been alienated from the political process by state election laws that require out-of-state students to vote in their home state. A nationwide forum to change the election process would give students a voice in reforming the system they will eventually lead.
Then, if citizens across the nation join forces by voting only for candidates who agree to sign on as co-sponsors and to vote our bill into law once elected, we can finally purge the influence of money in politics, and establish a fair and objective electoral process.
By building an alliance of socially responsible and technically astute college students, Washington College could become the driving force for change. This national task force of students, steeped in social media and web technologies, could develop a web-based, non-partizan electoral process that would make it possible to eliminate money from politics.
How it might work
The new electoral process could be simple. We citizens could post questions on the international, national, domestic and economic issues that concern us most. All voters could then review the questions and click to vote on the questions that they agree are most urgent. Questions in each category that receive the most votes would be put to prospective candidates.
Voters would register as usual in their local precincts and receive a personal identification number (PIN) which they would then enter into the voter database and set their personal password. Voters could review the responses of all the candidates, and once registered, could vote remotely using their PIN and password. This would enable citizens to vote from home, work, college, etc. or at public venues such as libraries or local election centers providing computers and online access for voters who lack connectivity elsewhere.
Any citizen who feels that he or she possesses the skills, experience, intellect and sound judgment, to serve could apply for candidacy by filling out an online application that includes their bio, their reasons for entering, and their responses to the questions posed. Potential candidates’ written and video responses would be posted on the election website and voters could endorse the candidates that they think are most capable. Prospective candidates receiving the most endorsements would be entered into the general election.
State primaries could be scheduled for six months before the general election as voters pick from their roster of state candidates those whose answers and proposed policies they agree with. These primaries would be used to reduce the number of candidates for each state and federal office to those three receiving the most votes.
Presidential elections would work the same way. A nationwide nomination process for the presidency might occur nine before the general election. The nationwide nomination process would reduce the number of presidential candidates to the top five. Each presidential finalists would then choose his or her running mate, who would also respond to the questions posed by the voters. The candidates would be free to participate in public debates and interviews. As usual, the general election would occur on the second Tuesday in November.
The Bottom Line
If we citizens want to change America’s broken political system we will have to do it ourselves by drafting our own bill and demanding that our legislators pass it into law. We have the power to make this happen by voting only for candidates who agree to co-sponsor our bill and to vote for it when it comes before them.
The challenges today may seem as daunting as those faced by our first president 340 years ago. As he rose to the occasion then, so must we now. We have the power today to restore the promise of America by freeing our political process from the corrupting influence of money. In doing so, we will restore the individual freedoms and equal rights that George Washington and his revolutionary colleagues envisioned.
Zane Carter is a retired advertising executive who now lives on the Eastern Shore of Maryland.
Stephan Sonn says
Thank you Zane for answering the how to question I posed to your comments in KCN.
George R. Shivers says
Zane Carter is certainly on the right track with his article. I agree that campaign finance reform is absolutely essential to restoring democracy to our political process. Compulsory public financing of all campaigns, putting all candidates on the same footing is necessary. Eliminating the Electoral College, an outdated mechanism imposed by the founding fathers (all elite property owners) to limit our democracy should also take place through a constitutional amendment. One national primary election 4 months before the general election would help to lessen the cost of campaigns and would also prevent the undo influence of early over later primaries as well as the influence of media pollsters. Other proposals: easy and universal registration of all citizens when they reach the age of 18, compulsory voting, and making election days (primary and general) national holidays. I thank Zane for his proposals and wish that Washington College would take up the challenge, because, along with action by other groups and individual citizens we could achieve the necessary reforms and make the United States a true representative democracy.