Here’s a proposal for campaign finance reform:
Pick a candidate for federal office. You are allowed to give that candidate a contribution of any amount to a maximum of, say, $500. Just a number.
When you file your tax return, claim a refundable tax credit of 80% of that amount, or $400.
It’s taxpayer-directed public financing. It would be quite easy to qualify candidates before they are tax-credit-worthy: To qualify for public financing, they have to raise a certain amount, say $50,000 from 5,000 donors. That way you could weed out the tiny splinters yet still allow small parties to compete. It would end the D-R-one-party-two-right-wing monopoly.
Of course, much more need be done than that, like somehow getting the advertising industry out of campaigns. Those 30 second ads are demeaning, insulting, and subversive.
One thing at a time.
By the way, I’m no great original thinker. This is how the Canadians do it. It ain’t just health care that they are good at.
Piece of Mindful 
But Canadians suffer the same problem.
Voting doesn’t matter.
1) You don’t pick the candidates – they are chosen for you.
2) You don’t pick the issues – they are created for you.
3) If the guy you didn’t pick championing an issue you didn’t chose but who you voted for wins, he doesn’t have to do a single thing he promised. He can do whatever he wants with impunity.
So, you get to vote for a guy you don’t know on issues that aren’t yours so he can do whatever he wants regardless of what he promised.
And you think voting is ‘good’???
All your vote says is “I agree to be a slave”.
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http://freedominourtime.blogspot.com/2009/12/thin-blue-whine-pt-ii-crybaby-thugs-of.html
rightsaidfred
Grigg exposes the consequence of rabid enforcement of illegal immigration – the creation of a Police State that threatens the citizens.
It’s a good article. I await further discussion
(Sorry for the small hijack, Mark – but it sorta fit under the “corruption” banner)
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Ballot access laws when added to finance “weeding” requirements make outside challenges close to impossible. Constitutional rights are individual rights, not reserved for parties, small or large. “Qualifying” requirements for public money or public access favors the status quo. If Microsoft started in a garage, why restrict any legal citizen interested in participating in electoral politics? The “cluttered ballot” issue is bogus.
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