US Politics 2-14-24

I believe that government could screw up a one-car parade. Voters in the US are not well informed and are inundated with propaganda. US Voters elect candidates who are attractive, nice, malleable and inoffensive. It’s a beauty contest with a low bar for relevant experience and common sense. We fund our candidates with bribe money from special interest groups. This allows for massive numbers of TV ads full of liable and slander of opponents. The cost of running for elective office is in the millions. 

Entry to elective office is controlled by absolute compliance to the in-crowd and is closely monitored by gate-keepers. Outsiders are ignored and attacked. This creates a stagnant pond that allows for bribery, liable, slander to be legal and produces systemic corruption. Ideologue Social Activists are attracted to and elected to elective office with no other qualifications. Most candidate websites consist of a family picture and a donation request. Inclusion of unqualified candidates is enormous.

We need to drastically reform our election process and drastically reduce the cost of running for office. 

Candidates for elective office should be required to post their positions on issues and previous votes on their websites along with their entire resumes before they are allowed to pay their filing fees. State Legislatures should require that campaign contributions be limited to voters and only for candidates who appear on their ballots. This would block outside money from funding negative ads.

Contributions from voters should be limited to $1000 and donated through the candidate’s website or by check. All contributions should be audited to ensure that contributions are only made by citizen who are registered voters in their districts.

Campaign contributions would be drastically reduced, but would be sufficient to allow candidates to pay for campaign expenses including travel to campaign events and would put all candidates in each State on a equal footing. We would get better candidates and ensure that they are actually working for the voters.

Lobby groups would be free to make their pitch to elected officials and corporations would be free to use their political voice and campaign for their own projects, but would not have complete control over elections. Corporations need to concentrate on their own customers.  Until we do this, nothing will change.

Most elected officials object to my plan. They are comfortable with the current, corrupt system.

Trump broke the mold and is able to fund his own campaign, but he is the exception.

Norb Leahy, Dunwoody GA Tea Party Leader