Diary: Vocabulary = Dollars? Public Financing of Elections

(OKLAHOMA CITY) With the latest installment of the continuing Oklahoma saga of GOP Speaker of the House Lance Cargill and his money raising skulduggery being a bus trip to Dallas and veering too close to the yellow line of campaign finance disclosure, there is a reminder of what anyone concerned with honesty in government should be aware, regardless of the state you live in.

Supporting the holy capitalist system that has enshrined corporate greed as a civil right, a Supreme Court ruling of several years ago made campaign donations a form of free speech.

The decision made vocabulary the equivalent of dollars--the more money you have, the more speech you're entitled to--be you an individual such as myself with vocabulary and few dollars or a multi-national corporation with a post office box in a Caribbean island, with both a public relations spokesperson and deep financial pockets.

Straight-forward elections in a constitutional democracy should be the fundamental reason to have publicly financed elections with strict time lines for campaigning. The "old Europe" of Donald Rumsfeld does it this way, but they don't have to police the world with the threat of wars trumped up on fraudulent evidence. Such threats are good for the American military-industrial complex which in turn is good for the campaign coffers of many incumbent officeholders. How many of you know that the original phrase from Eisenhower, before re-write, was military-industrial-Congressional complex?

The current system in the USA is exceedingly neurotic with every verb and noun being analyzed for "deep" meaning and symbolism. I think it would increase voter interest and participation in the long run and remove the element of bribery, which I think all of us can relate to in a truly non-partisan way, were tax-dollars paying for a limited amount of campaigning..

We frequently read and hear about potential candidates not wanting to throw in their hat due to the excessive demand for fund raising and kow-towing to special interests which shade and dilute the important issues.

I'm always disappointed when otherwise fine candidates end their campaign events with pleas for more money.

Wouldn't public financing of all elections bring the USA closer to the fulfillment of its Constitutional beginnings if we had sincere campaigns based on issues rather than the game show tactics of Wheel of Fortune or Jeopardy?

This contributes to the constant bickering, as in the current season, about gender, skin color, and religious affiliation--none of which is relevant to running for office.

The voters then might really pay attention to the issues and the corporations would lose their fiduciary power over the vital elements of our American society.

The story about Cargill's bus trip can be read in the Oklahoman at this link:
http://newsok.com/article/keyword/3192114/