Let's Legalize Corruption

Many people in this county, me included, have lost faith in our political leadership. Who are the leaders serving? If they are not serving the voters than whom are they serving? I don’t think the average voter can answer that question.
Some times Politian’s are so blatant that most people can figure it out. Take the senior senator from Alaska - Ted Stevens. He wants to spend millions of tax payer dollars to build a bridge to an island where about 40 people live. Does anyone think that he is only concerned about those people? Who would benefits from such a misuse of money? The first answer is easy: all the construction trades and owners who filled his campaign coffers and did other things like help him rebuild his house. A less obvious answer would be what kind of future development would take place on that island and who would benefit (just like in Watergate you have to follow the money.) My only gripe is that the citizens of Alaska who keep voting for this guy should be footing the bill. I don’t live in Alaska, why should I pay for such nonsense.
Another example is a lot harder to prove. Eliot Spitzer, the Governor of New York wants to give illegal aliens (he refers to them as hard working immigrants and anyone who says different is a racist.) a driver’s license. It would take to long to go into the bad implications of such an act, but I would like to mention one thing. In New York State in order to register to vote all you need is a driver’s license. I would like to mention something about New York State. For decades the state assembly has always been democrat led. For decades the Senate has always been Republican led. Republicans and Democrats have taken their turns as Governor and finally, Eliot Spitzer is a Democrat. What would happen if thousands of illegal alien decided that voter fraud was their ticket to getting them permanent residence? Guess who they would vote for, would if be a Democrat or Republican. In NY they have a law that states that you have to be a citizen in order to vote. Why would Eliot Spitzer the chief person to represent the law in New York do something to make enforcing that law impossible? Who does Eliot Spitzer really represent, I don’t know do you?
Our politicians spend a lot of money to get elected. People give them a lot of money to get elected. People including the average citizen want something in return for their investment. Politicians know this and they know the penalty for offending their big backers, they don’t get reelected. As all of us know politicians need money to craft their image into something that is phony but will still get them elected. They need the money to demonize their opponent while making themselves look like a true patriot. If you doubt this look at George Bush Jrs’ first primary campaign again John McCain. Bush Jr. was a guy who made sure he wasn’t in Vietnam, a place where he could have gotten his head blown off. He did, according to newspaper reports, party a lot during this period which can be dangerous especially if you run red lights. His opponent John McCain not only served his country in a time of war but was a prisoner of war. I doubt if very few of us would have held up under torture the way he did and still kept their dignity. Yet who did the voters think was weak on national defense and as we know in this country anybody who is weak on national defense never gets elected.
I believe most politicians think the voters are pretty stupid and can be easily manipulated. I don’t the average citizen is that stupid but clearly the average citizen is not paying attention to what is going on. Clearly you have to pay a lot of attention and even then you may not catch everything. Worse, a lot of people don’t vote- especially in the local elections. In Fort Piece they are having an important election in December to elect the next Mayor. Fort Piece is in a pivotal time in its develop and this election will produce someone who will move us forward or take us back, yet according to a recent newspaper article only 22% of the voters vote in local elections. Even people who vote often vote for a personality and don’t really listen to the answers these people give to people who interview them. At a minimum voters should be listening to shows like “Meet the Press” The questions on Meet the Press are always well research but seldom do the politicians ever answer the question. Usually they will go on about something else that always demonizes their opponent. The guy asking the questions always lets them get away with it because if he gave them the full interrogation they deserve he would never get anyone on his show and would be out of a job. You have to pay attention to what they are not saying and why are they evading the answer.
So if the average politician is representing someone other than the voters and the voters don’t want to get involve enough to find out whose going to throw them the greater amount of bread crumbs, what is the only alternative.
I like to call my plan legalized corruption. The idea behind this plan is to allow unlimited money contributions to each candidate. Also get rid of their salaries and fat perks, let the people who brought them pay for everything. The only rule the candidates have to follow is they have to disclose who is giving them the money and they have to state that any political decisions they make will be based on who gives them the most money. We already know this is going on but at least we won’t have to listen to phony statements by the candidates about how they are only here for Joe Citizen and not some moneyed interest. Normally we would think that only filthy rich billionaires would be the big contributors, but in this plan filthy rich unions and citizen groups could also play a part.
How would this plan work, you ask? Let’s say candidate X and Y and Z are running for a house seat that would cover the area around Lake Okeechobee and the city of Fort Pierce (no such area, I know).
Candidate X gets his money from the international mud runners association of America. He has promised them if he gets elected that he or she will generate legislation that would drain Lake Okeechobee so they could make one gigantic mud running track so that the group could run grand prix mud racing. In addition he is getting money from a consortium of fast food outlets and cheapie motels that would ring the former lake with appropriate tourist venues that would give much needed jobs to the area. The most controversial part of this plan is that they need to detonate a nuclear bomb six miles below the surface in order to have enough space to drain the water. Some Liberal do-gooder groups think this might taint the water. FissionsRUS the company blowing everything up has assured the candidate that its technicians will test the water and find it to be clean as spring lake water. Local developers are excited about this plan because all the developers who are contributing to candidate X (which is pretty much everyone) will get free water to build more lakes in their developments (snowbirds love this kind of stuff.) As a sop to the few liberals in the areas he is also getting money from a group that wants to stage a mudtistic art fiesta. Candidate X isn’t getting any money from groups looking to get rich off of Fort Pierce but he has promised the locals there that they will get discount tickets to all the mud racing events.
Candidate Y on the other hand doesn’t have the grandiose plans of Candidate X. He gets his money from the sugar growers who simply need an area to dump their waste into. Being a concerned republican he also gets money from a private company that specializes in running cities (The Company doesn’t have a Robocop, but they are pretty close to creating one.) They want to get rid of the mayor and city commissioners of Fort Pierce and turn the city into an urban version of Disney land. No more private boats in the marina, they need to be converted to private rides for the tourists. He wants to liberalize the eminent domain laws: pretty radical stuff for a conservative.
Candidate Z is a decent hard working individual who won't take graft and wants to do a lot of good stuff for the people in this area. Unfortunately someone snap a picture of him crying at a Barbara Striesand concert and after that the blogs were full of posts about him being gay. Candidate Z has since dropped out of the race.
Obviously you as a voter have a difficult choice but at least you know what each candidate will do once they get elected. You can break your promises to voters, especially if you make vague promises but people who give you a lot of money don’t let you get off with vague promises and they are not the sort people you want to cross.
How much of this I actually believe or don’t believe is not the point. The point is the present political system doesn’t elect people we would want to buy a used car from. I have spent a lifetime observing unions, associations and the political system and one thing is pretty clear with few exceptions: all these groups reflect the member’s interest or lack of interest. If you don’t care enough to make your leaders accountable the only thing your leaders will care about is themselves. Or your leaders may talk a good game but what’s the gap between their promises and what they actually deliver on. No political payoff left behind; unfortunately that is often the truth.