To Improve Our Elections...
Our country is not being well served by our current system of electing our politicians. The election process has become very expensive, with the need for television advertising to get one's primary messages across and to identify where they differ from their opponent(s). Negative ads--those pointing out the deficiencies in their opponents--have proliferated, due mostly to the fact that they work. They flavor the opponent's image in such as way as to turn voters against them. Therein lies our biggest problem. With the aid of misinformation and sometimes lies, they make all the candidates looks bad, in one way or another.
We need to do things differently. I suggest we tackle the problem in stages. First, we for bid the lying and misinformation. This would clarify greatly what candidates stand for and give us a much truer image of how they present themselves. We also need to have clear identification of the donors to each candidate or cause. We could collectively call this "The Truth in Campaigning Act. " The second step would be to take some of the cost out of the process. Since some candidates are much wealthier than others, I suggest we limit the exposure of each candidate in terms of TV space time to the same limited number of speeches and sound bytes. This would not affect anyone's First Amendment rights. The number decided upon would depend on the size of each office's constituency. I tend to believe that, once the lies and misinformation become a thing of the past, the amount of money spent will diminish to a more reasonable level without the need to regulate it.
There would need to be appropriate consequences for those who break a Truth in Campaigning Law. Since money is no object to those who don't like to play by the rules, I suggest that proven violations will result in the suspension from office of the candidate who perpetrates and suspension of the right to make political donations of any kind for two terms of office to companies or agencies who defy or attempt to circumvent the law.
How about it, people? Haven't we had enough? Let's start with our federal officials. Write your candidate now to let them know you want a change in the way things are done. If nothing is done before the next election, tell your candidates this is a high priority for you and you will vote accordingly, and then do so. Lastly, and most important, pray that the Lord will bless this nation with Godly, responsible leaders--the kind that live their faith as well as talk about it.
Praying for our nation and its leaders,
Margaret
P.S. Having some formatting problems this morning. Sorry about that.
Our country is not being well served by our current system of electing our politicians. The election process has become very expensive, with the need for television advertising to get one's primary messages across and to identify where they differ from their opponent(s). Negative ads--those pointing out the deficiencies in their opponents--have proliferated, due mostly to the fact that they work. They flavor the opponent's image in such as way as to turn voters against them. Therein lies our biggest problem. With the aid of misinformation and sometimes lies, they make all the candidates looks bad, in one way or another.
We need to do things differently. I suggest we tackle the problem in stages. First, we for bid the lying and misinformation. This would clarify greatly what candidates stand for and give us a much truer image of how they present themselves. We also need to have clear identification of the donors to each candidate or cause. We could collectively call this "The Truth in Campaigning Act. " The second step would be to take some of the cost out of the process. Since some candidates are much wealthier than others, I suggest we limit the exposure of each candidate in terms of TV space time to the same limited number of speeches and sound bytes. This would not affect anyone's First Amendment rights. The number decided upon would depend on the size of each office's constituency. I tend to believe that, once the lies and misinformation become a thing of the past, the amount of money spent will diminish to a more reasonable level without the need to regulate it.
There would need to be appropriate consequences for those who break a Truth in Campaigning Law. Since money is no object to those who don't like to play by the rules, I suggest that proven violations will result in the suspension from office of the candidate who perpetrates and suspension of the right to make political donations of any kind for two terms of office to companies or agencies who defy or attempt to circumvent the law.
How about it, people? Haven't we had enough? Let's start with our federal officials. Write your candidate now to let them know you want a change in the way things are done. If nothing is done before the next election, tell your candidates this is a high priority for you and you will vote accordingly, and then do so. Lastly, and most important, pray that the Lord will bless this nation with Godly, responsible leaders--the kind that live their faith as well as talk about it.
Praying for our nation and its leaders,
Margaret
P.S. Having some formatting problems this morning. Sorry about that.
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