Nothing At All Will Change Without Publicly Financed Elections

[Wiley50]

Nothing At All Will Change Without Publicly Financed Elections

and FREE TV ad spots

Gore tells all about it in the excerpt to his new book Assault on Reason
There's a thread here that links to it. read it.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x906613

The reason we have no power and corporations have all the power
is that mostly what our pols are doing is raising corporate money to buy TV spots
and a lot in their pockets under the table

Until then, they only need us on election day, and now with the machines
it's getting so that they don't even need us then

They're just going through the motions with us for show

Then doing secret trade deals

fucking enraging, but true

Just a disillusioning reality sandwich with a side of bs

PS- I posted this as a reply to a thread then decided it needed to be said more out front

[Liberal_Dog]

1. First Of All...

We must get rid of this ridiculous idea of "Corporate Personhood".

[papau]

2. Gore does speak the truth - we'd be so much better off now if Gore ran the

Whitehouse.

[Wiley50]

8. Look, we all agree on that, but he doesn't want to run

Maybe people who read his book will get something started on this

That's what he seemed to be saying. Us, the web people

[GreenPartyVoter]

3. So many things need to be fixed, but you are

right that is one of the things. Here are some more: http://www.hostdiva.com/liberalchristians/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=116&Itemid=29&limit=1&limitstart=1

[bobbolink]

4. What are we doing about it?

We grumble about the things we don't like, but don't seem to be able to take it to the point of doing some serious discussion about how to actually affect changes.

Damned good thing our founders weren't so passive!

[bread_and_roses]

5. True. True. True. (n/t)

[rubberducky]

6. You are totally 100% right.

The only problem is our elected officials are the ones who would have to vote on it. Do you really think they are going to turn thier backs on all that money???? Currently office holders buy the job. Whoever has the most money wins. But, at that price?? They owe thier souls "to the company store".

[patrice]

7. Agreed.

I must start supporting the people I know who are working on that locally. I have been thinking about it recently. Campaign Finance and Election Reform can go hand in hand; they'll be a second priority with me for a while longer, 2nd to this Damned War, but they MUST soon become my first priority, ahead of even whomever we elect in 2008, because all of our problems have grown out of our campaign and voting status quo.

[porphyrian]

9. I accept that, but what do we do about it? - n/t

[Vinnie From Indy]

10. Amen!

One step should be that ALL FCC license holders be REQUIRED to offer blocks of FREE air time to all legitimate candidates. Gore is absolutely correct about focusing attention on publicly financing all elections.

[rumpel]

11. totally agree

however, it must start already at the local level.

[Wiley50]

12. Lots of people will read Gore's new book

We need to be here on the net to help them organize

There is a lot of that talent here at DU

[CK_John]

13. Hate to rain on your parade but who would qualify as a candidate

if you offer free money and/or free TV time. The first hundred thousand to apply? Maybe a national lottery for the final hundred. Sorry this is not realistic.