How to address corruption in the U.S. government and elections NOW
There's a flash of hope here: A remarkable U.S. transpartisan group called Represent.Us is promoting a brilliantly designed Anti-Corruption Act. Check it out!
The proposed law pulls together a number of anti-corruption and money-out-of-politics approaches into one piece of national legislation. It exposes and regulates bribery and restricts the “revolving door” of public officials getting high paying corporate jobs soon after leaving their government jobs. It tightens regulations on lobbying and exposes secret donations to public view. It strengthens the Federal Election Commission and even provides a tax rebate for small political donations.
The introduction on its website http://anticorruptionact.org explains: “The Act was crafted by former Federal Election Commission chairman Trevor Potter in consultation with dozens of strategists, democracy reform leaders and constitutional attorneys from across the political spectrum. Mr. Potter was one of the chief architects of the McCain-Feingold law. The Act would transform how elections are financed, how lobbyists influence politics, and how political money is disclosed. It is a bold, sweeping proposal that would reshape the rules of American politics, and restore ordinary Americans as the most important stakeholders instead of major donors. The Anti-Corruption Act’s provisions enjoy support from progressives and conservatives alike. Constitutional attorneys confirm that the provisions are constitutional.”
Popular long-term campaign finance and Constitutional amendment initiatives such as MoveToAmend.org have might someday strictly limit the role of money and undue corporate power in our democratic process, ending the toxicity of the infamous Citizens United Supreme Court decision. However, most such efforts face extreme challenges, like the time and effort it takes to get a Constitutional amendment passed or the legal obstacles that now exist to limiting campaign donations. While fully supporting such long-term efforts, the Anti-Corruption Act initiative is strategically designed to stem the hemorrhage of democracy's lifeblood ASAP – before the 2014 elections – and to be immune to legal challenges. Represent.Us's list of major figures on both the left and right – including both public officials and leading activists in the Occupy movement and the Tea Party – is quite impressive. See http://represent.us/about/.
I highly recommend adding your signature to their effort to gather support from a million American citizens within a year. Encourage your friends and associates to participate as well. This will give us some breathing room to make the many other fixes and improvements in our democratic infrastructure.
Blessings on the Journey.
Coheartedly,
Tom
Phi Beta Iota: This would go very well with a simultaneous passage of the Automated Payment Transaction Tax including the doubling of Member salaries.
