Buy A Politician! It’s Not As Expensive As You Might Think!
Technology has really changed the way political campaigns function. We’ve seen citizen produced campaign ads take off like wildfire (like the Hillary as Big Brother ad) and we’ve seen grassroots fundraising skyrocket with the help of the Internet. Barack Obama’s campaign announced last week that 90% of his first quarter campaign contributions were under $100 and came from a whopping 100,000 contributors, half of them through the Internet. Since campaign finance laws have done little to erode the influence of big business and corporate special interests on political candidates and campaigns, We The People must join the party and buy some politicians of our own.
Recently, some bloggers and activists in Oregon decided that Republican Senator Gordon Smith needed to be challenged and they started a movement to draft Peter DeFazio to run against Smith for one of Oregon’s Senate seats. Please check out their most recent post at Daily Kos titled, “$5 Can Change The World” and consider helping out. At this point, they’re not trying to raise big money for the campaign, they are simply trying to show that there is support out there and that the people can deliver as well, or better, than corporate donors. They’ve already reached their first goal and are now on to phase II. The title of the post really does say it all, the money is less important than the statement it makes.
There is power in numbers and with the help of the Internet we now have an easy way to exercise that power. A little bit of money, when added together can create quite a war chest. That is a message we should be make sure our politicians receive loud and clear. If we want a responsive government, we need to make sure that we are the ones picking the candidates, not the fat cats with the deep pockets who expect more for their money than a “thank you”.
posted by The (liberal)Girl Next Door @ 12:49 PM
2 Comments:
Excellent post! What irritates me about some "winner take all" types is that they think the Election is The Day when it's all decided. And the Lobbyists, of course, think it's a matter of greasing the wheels.
It's a representative democracy. If Congress or the White House is unrepresentative of America, then it's the duty of the people to raise their voices. Every citizen is a stakeholder in the nation.
When the people take to the streets in Latin America or Eastern Europe or Southeast Asia, that's democracy at work. And the government has to answer the protesters. If a citizen votes and then shrugs at news of broken promises or hidden agendas, the citizen is shirking their duty to uphold the Constitution.
Democracy is a civic duty 24/7. It's not something that only happens on Election Day. And if the election results don't 'represent' public opinion, they shouldn't be seen as a Done Deal. Government is for the benefit of ALL THE PEOPLE. And not merely the 50% + 1 that showed up at the ballot box. A purely partisan government is simply a tyranny and a mockery of Founding Fathers' intent.
Obama was born in Kenya and is now an illegal alien from Indonesia since the age of 10 years old. Obama lived in Indonesia for four years and traveled on an Indonesian passport in 1981. You must be an Indonesian citizen to have one of those. The Supreme Court has turned down an emergency appeal from a New Jersey man who says President-elect Barack Obama is ineligible to be president because he was a British subject at birth. The United States Senate and United States House of Representatives refuse to do anything about it also. They are all shirking their duty to uphold the Constitution. They are all committing treason and need to be dealt with accordingly.
Treason
1. the offense of acting to overthrow one's government or to harm or kill its sovereign.
*2. a violation of allegiance to one's sovereign or to one's state.
3. the betrayal of a trust or confidence; breach of faith; treachery.
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