Rich politicans

[airjaw]

Why is it that only rich people can become politicians? I'm not talking about your local village mayor, i'm talking about people making a difference at the Federal level : representatives, senators, the President, etc.

I just sense there's something flawed with our political system. In order to really effect change you need to be elected. In order to be elected, you need to campaign. In order to campaign, you need to raise obscene amounts of money. And the corporations and lobbyist groups end up giving the money to politicians, who are then influenced to pass favorable legislation for those industries or corporations.

When you think about it, its just a big, sick, twisted game that only the truly powerful and rich can play. Maybe thats why the majority of Americans are either apathetic or without hope. Can one person really make a difference?

I think any individual should be able to run and campaign and win the presidency, regardless of his/her wealth. We should reform the campaign system so that it doesn't cost millions of dollars to run.

[Rhu]

When you think about it, its just a big, sick, twisted game that only the truly powerful and rich can play. Maybe thats why the majority of Americans are either apathetic or without hope. Can one person really make a difference?
It takes a clever mind, time, and a network of temporary and long-term alliances to make up for an initial lack of funds. Anyone willing to spend that kind of energy to be a politician may end up getting rich by virtue of the support and connections they start collecting, anyway.


I think any individual should be able to run and campaign and win the presidency, regardless of his/her wealth. We should reform the campaign system so that it doesn't cost millions of dollars to run.
How? Have the government trust fund allot a limited amount of funds to everyone willing to run, and bar them from using any outside money to campaign otherwise?

Corporate and special interests will still find a way to draw attention to candidates that will serve their goals off of any individualized books.

[omnirook]

Why is it that only rich people can become politicians? I'm not talking about your local village mayor, i'm talking about people making a difference at the Federal level : representatives, senators, the President, etc.

I just sense there's something flawed with our political system. In order to really effect change you need to be elected. In order to be elected, you need to campaign. In order to campaign, you need to raise obscene amounts of money. And the corporations and lobbyist groups end up giving the money to politicians, who are then influenced to pass favorable legislation for those industries or corporations.

When you think about it, its just a big, sick, twisted game that only the truly powerful and rich can play. Maybe thats why the majority of Americans are either apathetic or without hope. Can one person really make a difference?

I think any individual should be able to run and campaign and win the presidency, regardless of his/her wealth. We should reform the campaign system so that it doesn't cost millions of dollars to run.

Minus a revolution, reform requires the politicians. Therefore, real reform is unlikely. Reform was attempted, but, by time the bill got to the president's desk for signature, it had been watered down to the point that all that was necessary to carry on as usual was to change the labels. Instead of giving 10 million to a candidate, one gives 10 million to his party - wink, wink ... It isn't going to happen. Things political are always the way that they are because the people at the top benefit from them being that way. Long before the last of the Founders were slipped into their caskets, the American system had been hopelessly corrupted, so that Lincoln eventually acknowledged privately that "of the people, by the people, and for the people" was a lie. The ingeniousness of the American system was taking Voltaire seriously when he said that "to rule in a democracy, one must appear to wear the same chains that bind the people." Americans added this bit of advice to Augustus Caesar's bit of advice: "Feed and entertain the people. If you do that, you can do whatever else you want to do." They have also always heeded Julius Caesar's advice: "Pay the troops regularly. You will need them to keep the law legal."

[sorabji_66]

Presidents Nixon and Clinton were not rich men when they took office.

[euterpenc]

Well if they are rich they must have a taste for money. And money talks. So we then have a way to manipulate politicians, as they can manipulate others, and corporations manipulate politicians and government.

If you were rich you could do something. So why don't you get rich?

[The Concertinist]

Wealth is power, and politics is power. Neither causes the other, but they're both fueled by a power-seeking personality.