Reply #40: Agreed. We set ourselves up for

[jbnow]

buffoons or corruption by the way our political system is set up. It just costs so much to run that you are always "campaigning". You learned it the hardest way.

I learned it as a child who hung around politicians because of my mom's work. I'd hang out when congress was in session and I wasn't in school. I was awed by the potential nobility of politics and would be baffled by some of the votes. When I'd ask congressmen I knew about their votes there weren't grand thoughts about the highest good behind them as I initially assumed. Maybe because I was so many years from voting they didn't pretend there was. It boiled down to party expectations and the money needed to run again. (And that was for state office, not national.)

I'm sure many start out with noble purposes but the reality of the expenses is a reality. Makes it hard to get your message out to break in and makes it hard to stay as independent as you might once you get in.

I laud you for your efforts and join you in supporting campaign finance reform. I have no idea what it should change in to, but our system helps create the problems we decry.