A Democracy of Campaign Contributors ?

By

Mike Pulaski

November 3, 2006

With little less than a week before Election Day, we citizens are being pelted by political advertisements.  We read in the newspapers how the political parties spend “millions of dollars” peddling their candidates, using “attack ads”, slick brochures and sponsoring freebie junkets and dinners for the enjoyment of “movers and shakers”.

The art of advertising and marketing politicians has become a sophisticated science.  Some of the brightest, best educated people in our society work in the field.  Employing them to broadcast political messages costs very serious money.

Ask yourself a few questions.  Where does all the money come from?What promises are made in exchange for the money?  Do the dollars of big campaign contributors drown the significance of your individual vote?  Why hasn’t there been effective legislation regarding campaign contributions?  Doesn’t the very idea of “soft money” and “hard money” campaign contributions insult you ?

Political campaign financing has changed the American democracy we learned about in civics class.  “One person, one vote” doesn’t really count for much today.  Instead, it’s all about how much money is received by a political party or candidate and what is promised to the contributor in exchange.  The main thing parties and politicians stand for is campaign contributions.  Issues are swayed by the vote of dollars and not the vote of the people.  Therefore, legislation is passed that oftentimes is counter to the public’s needs or wants.

After being exposed to political ads for years, I’ve concluded that the parties and candidates have no respect for the common voter.  They treat us as if we are laboratory animals involved in a stimulus-response experiment.   These highly expensive advertisements are intended to herd us like cattle, certain to be slaughtered!

Now consider all the negative political advertisements we see.  They are uncouth and a shameful representation of our society.  We undoubtedly look and act like a pack of hyenas.  We are an embarrassment in the global village. 

I wish that all the money spent on campaign advertisements would instead be spent in a more positive manner.  We have many societal problems that could use more money:  healthcare, education and improving the environment to name only a few.

In the process of re-directing the money, the individual vote will regain its meaning in our democratic society.

This election season, try and make a personal effort to speak out against this perversion of our democracy.