Forum Post: What the occupiers/99% want; free and fair elections.

To Whom it May Concern; I continue to hear the press ask what do the 99%/Occupiers want? How about this? Free and fair elections. The following amendment to the US Constitution would not limit campaign spending only equalize it among all candidates. Furthermore the issue of phony issue ads could be eliminated as well. My background is as a scientist and not as a politician or lawyer. The proposed amendment is just to start the ball rolling, to start a national dialog. What I would hope occurs is some sort of grassroots movement. This movement could be composed of the morally upright and the economically downtrodden. One of the major problems plaguing this country is disfranchisement of the majority of the electorate. If eighty percent of us do not vote, it then takes only one half of the remaining twenty percent, that is ten percent, to actually elect a president. As few as one in ten Americans choose our leaders and hence determine many aspects of our future. What is the root of all this apathy? As in many other things here in America, it is money. In listening to our current presidential campaign, and remembering others, many candidates drop out because of money. In these post-Reagan days one percent of America controls the majority of our nations wealth. This leaves many of our citizens feeling powerless, impotent, and unable to affect change. Why bother to vote. Money buys air time, money buys lobbyists, and money buys votes. However, the vote can be more potent than the dollar in affecting change. Whole countries have been changed overnight by one election and now by one revolution. Here is a proposition to re-energize the American electorate by starting a grass roots referendum organization. Attached is a copy of what could become a new constitutional amendment. With this in hand, one could reach out to the poor, the unemployed, all those segments of America usually ignored by politicians because they don’t vote and say “Look register to vote and sign this constitutional referendum”. One could tell them this is a way that one of their own could become president, not the best funded but rather the best qualified. That their single vote can undue many dollars. Furthermore with a good referendum organization in place this institution itself could become a powerful force for change here in American politics. By exploiting a chain-letter type concept, initiatives could be circulated, signed, then forwarded to elected officials. If different sides are required to provide equal media access to their opposition, this country has the potential for a new level of enlightenment. The occupiers could talk to passers-by, have them sign the amendment, have them have ten friends sign it. Please let me know what you think. Will it work?