Quote:
Originally Posted by eweissenbach
As I have stated previously, we need massive campaign reform IMO. Not only super pacs, but ALL influence money should be banned. Get all of the people and organizations who want a piece of a candidate or party's hide the hell out. If I were in charge, I would even ban campaign ads altogether, allowing candidates a certain number of network appearances and debates to explain thier positions. Now that will never happen, obviously, but what have we EVER really honestly learned about a candidate from an ad? I would severely limit campaign length, mandate a single countrywide presidential primary, and fund the limited campaigns publicly. Our current political process has in large measure, given us a great deal of the mess we find ourseves in.
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I agree, Coach. But with the Supreme Court's "free speech" decision in
Citizens United, the cat is out of the bag. All the rules you suggest might come from Congress or the political parties. We could even have a Constitutional amendment prohibiting or severely limiting campaigning or campaign advertising. The candidates themselves could even agree to only take government campaign financing, with no private fund-raising. But the Super PAC's would be unaffected. Their negative, nasty TV ads have been deemed to be free speech. Even those paid for by money from foreign countries, special interests, unions, any moneyed interest--arguably even those unfriendly to the U.S. could fund efforts to manipulate our government. I hate to say it, but I can't think of a way whereby we're ever again going to avoid the kind of advertising we're seeing right now.
The individual American voter, even groups of voters, will have little influence over elections. It's been proven that voters can be manipulated by advertising, particularly negative , attack ads. And the special interests all over the world can pour unlimited amounts of money into Super PACs to buy it.