With the raising of personal spending caps by the Supreme Court, will we start pressuring each politician with that question? Will we start asking why there can't be a level playing field using public funding where each candidate uses the same resources to demonstrate their skills? A large spender doesn't get more votes in office or faces a different budget when they take office than their competitor. So why should they be spending so much time raising funding or campaigning rather than doing their jobs instead of putting a system in place where we can begin to limit the amount of money and time spent on political campaigns?
Will we ask them, for the record, why it will be OK for the average person's 'free speech' will be drowned out by the super-amplified loudspeakers of wealthy? Will we ask for their personal views on corporatism, or fascism where the government is bought up by business and the wealthiest an is nothing more than a figurehead for the plutocracy's whims? Or for that reason why a corporation should be a person and why they shouldn't get a vote?
Of course not. Public funding always gets lip service around here, but despite its success in some states (until shut down by mostly the same SCOTUS) one rarely sees diaries on it. Rarely, even among progressives, is it anywhere near a front burner issue. The closest it ever gets to anything like that is when a diary like this goes down in flames.
Individuals in this country would probably prefer a public funding standard which keeps money out of the hands of politicians and parties. They'd like mechanisms which limits how much influence lobbyists and special interests have. We won 2012 on fairness and we're campaigning on it again but again we will not put the parties on the spot explaining themselves on why it's a good thing to need to have to buy a seat. I'd argue that kind of reform would do more for us achieving all the other issues we fight for here. That nothing else would help the common person take back some of the power of their vote. I'd also argue that the Democratic party would have some short term advantage under such a system over the Republicans.
But by the time I get home from work, this diary will be history. I hope that our democracy doesn't follow the same path.