so soon? way too soon! -and campaign finance reform
If I were not a First Amendment fanatic, I would want to stop this manaical (you should pardon the expression) surge of candidates throwing-hats-in-the-ring . It's too soon! I don't mind getting to know the candidates-to-be. I just wish they weren't out there spending money and solidifying their images already.
At this stage, all we really know about people like Obama is based on style, not substance. (I happen to think style can be important - a person's bearing can influence whether she/he is going to be taken seriously as a leader.) With other candidates, we may be too blinded by their style (Hillary's abrasiveness, for example) to hear the substance. Others might be all substance (Biden) and no discernable style at all. We might never know.
Maybe I'm just a policy wonk, but I'd rather read position papers and archives of each candidate's career than see them stumping already. Stumping requires money. Money requires donors. Donors require compensation. More than anything else, this mad sequence perverts the democratic process - in my opinion - by forcing candidates into servitude to the kinds of special interests with the money to tempt them - or control them.
It should not cost hundreds of millions of dollars to become the president of the most powerful nation on earth. I've heard the argument that donating money to candidates is an expression of free speech - the First Amendment. Thus, my dilemma. Thus, this nation's dilemma.
What can we do?
melanie
At this stage, all we really know about people like Obama is based on style, not substance. (I happen to think style can be important - a person's bearing can influence whether she/he is going to be taken seriously as a leader.) With other candidates, we may be too blinded by their style (Hillary's abrasiveness, for example) to hear the substance. Others might be all substance (Biden) and no discernable style at all. We might never know.
Maybe I'm just a policy wonk, but I'd rather read position papers and archives of each candidate's career than see them stumping already. Stumping requires money. Money requires donors. Donors require compensation. More than anything else, this mad sequence perverts the democratic process - in my opinion - by forcing candidates into servitude to the kinds of special interests with the money to tempt them - or control them.
It should not cost hundreds of millions of dollars to become the president of the most powerful nation on earth. I've heard the argument that donating money to candidates is an expression of free speech - the First Amendment. Thus, my dilemma. Thus, this nation's dilemma.
What can we do?
melanie
posted by teabird at 10:42 AM
1 Comments:
It is totally way too soon. I got the feeling listening to the campaign-speak that I get when I see Xmas decorations in Target at Halloween. For a second I had to stop and think, now, when is the election again? 2008? That's two years from now, right?
Unfortunately, the way they do things now is the way that gets results. Sadly there are too many people who don't want to spend time on anything but the sound bite. Sigh!
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