Forum Post: If we want real change the first step is real, loop-hole free CAMPAIGN FINANCE REFORM!!!
Posted 12 years ago on Nov. 19, 2011, 10:55 a.m. EST by LSN45
(535)
This content is user submitted and not an official statement
We should expect Wall Street to go for profits at any cost, no matter what it does to our country, health or future. We should expect skunks to act like skunks. But it is an entirely different thing for our politicians - the very people who are supposed to be our "representatives" and who have taken a solemn oath to act in our best interests - to act as they are. We need to reform the way we elect our officials. For decades now the corporations and special interests have had our "representatives" bought and paid for (both on the right and the left). Don't get distracted by the symptoms - we need to address the root cause. Concentrating our efforts on getting the money out of our politics is the best way we can create an environment in which further reforms can be realized. Until we end the current system of legalized bribery (campaign donations) and paid lobbying our politicians will continue to be the LAP DOGS of the corporations and special interests. What we need first and foremost is real, loop-hole free CAMPAIGN FINANCE REFORM!!!! If the corruption is not dealt with first, the chance of any other meaningful reforms becoming a reality is almost zero - the special interests will just use their money to buy votes and put forward bills that create loop-holes or otherwise twist the law in their favor. If we want our children to live in a country where there vote matters, we need to get the money out of our politics, otherwise they will increasingly become the 21st century version of the "landless peasant." Spread the word - End the LEGALIZED BRIBERY!!! CAMPAIGN FINANCE REFORM needs to be THE main goal of the protests!!!
If one is to take the heading of this website seriously ("The revolution continues worldwide") then we need a lot more than some pathetic legislation. First we need to build the movement. When we have 30 or 40 million people in the streets in this nation then we can talk about where to go next. The notion of revolution is either real or it is hyperbole. I believe the initiators of OWS and its my articulate advocates are true revolutionaries whereas the person who put up this particular post, and perhaps most supporters of OWS, really view the notion of revolution as mere hyperbole and not a serious proposition. That is where the internal discussion needs to start.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Z9WVZddH9w
I agree completely. Once this is done, any further reforms will be sooo much easier to implement, as they will be decided by representatives of the people, not of special interests.
I agree with everything except the part about LAP DOGS and "bribery". In my experience, Congress calls wall street far more often than wall street calls Congress. I would describe Congress (and the President) as BULL DOGS and I would describe the typical transaction as a “shake down” rather than “bribery”
Here's a very real example: “Want to be considered for the job? Then pay up”. http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/Politics/dialing-dollars-democratic-rep-asks-lobbyist-campaign-cash/story?id=11655808.
You are absolutely right - what started as corporations approaching lawmakers has become so common place that the the roles are reversing - politicians have come to expect it and actively look for ways to peddle their influence. Regardless of the direction, getting the money out of politics would create an environment in which other reforms can happen.
this won't do a thing.
as long as the FED remains a step lie this is meaningless. also the power structure behind the fed will remain even if we take the fed down.
we must take down the head of the serpent, not one of it's scales
I agree that the FED needs serious reform, but that is the whole point of moving for Campaign Finance Reform first - the only way I see that real reform can happen at the FED is if we have politicians in office that truly represent the best interests of the country rather than their own monetary interests. Campaign Finance Reform is an excellent pathway to achieve this - the majority of Americans already agree that they want less corporate influence in politics, but I would hazard to say that the majority of Americans don't even know what the FED is. Moving for real Campaign Finance Reform first is strategic - to create an environment where other important reforms have a chance of actually happening.
your logic is prudent and practical.
It won't work. we are on the edge of complete apocalypse, we must all now with one voice begin calling out the true enemy, Your plan would have worked in the 60's.
Now only calling out the Rothschild's and the global terrorist threat of Zionism can save us