There's
an old saying that we all have heard:
"Don't fix it, if it ain't broken."
Well, it's time to fix American politics, because, with Congress at its
lowest approval rating since used car salesmen, actually far worse at about 10%,
it is obviously broken, severely. And,
who in the heck are the 10% of those polled who think they're doing what we ask
them to do? Did anyone want a Congress
that can't find a way to govern effectively?
The fact is that America has descended into a plutocracy (see
Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plutocracy ). The plutocratic
form of government is the controlling form, now a worldwide epidemic in
purported democracies, and is truly exemplified in American politics. The surest sign of this is the Citizens
United Supreme Court case wherein the majority of our appointed justices,
supposedly exhibiting their vast judicial wisdom, ruled that corporations have
the same free speech rights that we all have, as individuals. Welcome to the age of the Superpac, where the
largest corporations and richest individuals can apply their massive coffers of
wealth to have their choices supported with endless ads and influence.
What
does all of this mean to the average citizen?
It means that those who inhabit the corridors of power in our nation's
capital and in statehouses and legislatures throughout America are no longer
beholden to us, the electorate, but to their management team, those who pay to
have them elected by manipulation of the vote.
Independents stand no chance; the two major parties are equally
corrupted. Why? Because what they say they stand for is
not what they actually stand for, but rather a line to grab us and persuade us of
the lie that they actually care about what happens to us. I could give endless examples of the results
of this situation, but I will simply note a couple of examples:
First,
there is the ACA, the health care reform act, now law. It does do a few things that are worthwhile,
but, at the bottom line, it is an expensive solution which still mostly rewards
the corporate interests in health care conglomerates, insurance companies, and
pharmaceutical companies more than any citizen.
And, furthermore it doesn't help about 50 million of the electorate who
live without insurance, unless we consider Medicaid adequate health care assistance. During the massive debates and committee
hearings, polls were taken. A majority
of Americans preferred the Medicare for All option (i.e. single payer), and
that was also preferred by a majority of doctors and other health
professionals, although the AMA didn't support it (pure politics there). The proponents of this alternative were
barred from even testifying in the congressional hearings, and, in some cases,
actually arrested for protesting their exclusion.
The
second example is the US Tax Code. Where
do I begin? First, the actual governing
regulation is nearly 16,000 pages of the CFR (Code of Federal Regulations), and
then there are about 50,000 pages of administrative determinations and court
set precedents which interpret the meaning of the 16,000 page code. About 90% of the code represents a corruption
of the federal income tax. What do I
mean by corruption? What I mean is that
the 90% is filled with benefits for tiny minorities of the electorate. It is filled with corporate tax breaks,
special exemptions for wealthy individuals and tax subsidies which unfairly
tilt the playing field in favor of those who have bought the privilege of
access to power. The Republicans are
fond of saying that our corporate tax rate is too high, and discourages
business. I say that's a load of
hogwash. Check out the average effective
rate of tax paid by the largest American corporations. This effective rate is less than half of that
stated in the code as the base rate.
Meanwhile, nearly every truly small business in America gets no breaks,
except breaks which resemble the individual mortgage interest deduction which
every American homeowner gets. And,
although this deduction is nice, the result of it is that most of us own homes
which are more than we need, simply because the deduction makes it possible to
afford more. What happened to home
values as a result of the bubble burst of 2007-08 and ongoing was exacerbated
by this fact. Without further belaboring
the facts regarding the corrupted American Tax Code, I will simply say that in
my opinion the ideal reform would be to completely trash it and start over from
scratch. But, as it stands, tax reform,
for many reasons (Grover Norquist being only one of them), is not happening,
and the chances of it happening are somewhere between slim and none. Don't hold your breath.
I
believe that nearly every citizen knows that the system is seriously broken. I have heard many proposals regarding the
fixes that could be done, none probably without a Constitutional Amendment (as
we cannot rely on the foxes to repair the henhouse). A law can be changed. A Constitutional Amendment can't.
Here
I will simply list some ideas of ways in which we could repair our electoral
processes and governing processes to make them so that the result would be
better governance.
1. Campaign finance.
Make all campaign finance public finance. Politicians can raise no money, and must use
only public funds. All candidates would
be assured of equal media exposure at the expense of media.
2. Electoral College.
Eliminate this anachronism. The
president should be elected by a pure popular vote. The majority rules. I have heard the excuses not to eliminate
this, but, to me, none of them hold water.
We don't want or need political elites deciding who we should have a
president, or the Supreme Court telling us.
3. Term limits. Every
elected official in any job, from President to Dog Catcher may only serve two
terms in office, and the longest term may be no more than four years, or only
one term of six years.
4. Election Districts.
The boundaries of election districts in all states should be determined
by an independent board acting to preserve value of the popular vote, not the
influence of any political party, such that each district is a simple
geographic area determined without regard to the political sentiments of its
populace.
5. Lobbying. No one who
has ever worked in a governmental position higher than the equivalent of G5 may
ever serve in a lobbying capacity, for life.
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
