I mean, hell, if the right wing Dems separate from the progressives and join the less-crazy-than-maga centerish Republicans and they go play in corporate-funded Neverland that hopefully no sane voter would touch with a ten foot pole, a real progressive party might actually become a possibility. It’ll isolate the magats and push them back into a hole, we may get a more moderate conservative party that could be open to compromising again, and hopefully a coalition of real progressives can begin putting forward some much needed ideas.
The key will be ensuring that that progressive party is funded well enough to compete with the corporate money that is pumped by the truckload into that new coalition (which will be a feat in itself).
I dunno, just anything to get these fucking fleas out of our politics.
A democracy needs many things to work properly, and they’re all broken. Now that cryptocurrency exists, every politician needs to be regularly audited. With First Past the Post, we’re pressured into voting for people known to accept bribes. With gerrymandering, Republicans draw lines around the 26% support they actually need. Even the elections themselves need to be end-to-end auditabile.
Bullseye. While I agree campaign finance reform is a huge step, there are a number of things that need to change to get ourselves on the right footing. The big one in my mind is anti corruption laws that actually have teeth.
And ALL those problems continue because there are wealthy entities willing to donate ANY amount of money to influence as many campaigns as possible. Right now, they see their re-elections as dependent on getting as much money as possible, so all their efforts are directed at the most wealthy.
But take money out of politics, and suddenly the ONLY election currency is every citizen’s single vote. Instead of appeasing a few very wealthy donors with important legislation that benefits only them at the expense of everyone else, they will be forced to support wide-reaching legislation that helps millions of citizens, in hopes of attracting their votes. Take money out of campaigns, and a wealthy person has equal political power as any other citizen - one vote. This is what the Founding Fathers were really talking about when they declared that all men were created equal.
I mean, hell, if the right wing Dems separate from the progressives and join the less-crazy-than-maga centerish Republicans and they go play in corporate-funded Neverland that hopefully no sane voter would touch with a ten foot pole, a real progressive party might actually become a possibility. It’ll isolate the magats and push them back into a hole, we may get a more moderate conservative party that could be open to compromising again, and hopefully a coalition of real progressives can begin putting forward some much needed ideas.
The key will be ensuring that that progressive party is funded well enough to compete with the corporate money that is pumped by the truckload into that new coalition (which will be a feat in itself).
I dunno, just anything to get these fucking fleas out of our politics.
The key is Campaign Finance Reform, which is the issue from which ALL other issues arise.
We need to get money out of politics.
A democracy needs many things to work properly, and they’re all broken. Now that cryptocurrency exists, every politician needs to be regularly audited. With First Past the Post, we’re pressured into voting for people known to accept bribes. With gerrymandering, Republicans draw lines around the 26% support they actually need. Even the elections themselves need to be end-to-end auditabile.
Bullseye. While I agree campaign finance reform is a huge step, there are a number of things that need to change to get ourselves on the right footing. The big one in my mind is anti corruption laws that actually have teeth.
And ALL those problems continue because there are wealthy entities willing to donate ANY amount of money to influence as many campaigns as possible. Right now, they see their re-elections as dependent on getting as much money as possible, so all their efforts are directed at the most wealthy.
But take money out of politics, and suddenly the ONLY election currency is every citizen’s single vote. Instead of appeasing a few very wealthy donors with important legislation that benefits only them at the expense of everyone else, they will be forced to support wide-reaching legislation that helps millions of citizens, in hopes of attracting their votes. Take money out of campaigns, and a wealthy person has equal political power as any other citizen - one vote. This is what the Founding Fathers were really talking about when they declared that all men were created equal.