Wednesday, March 2, 2011

Why Democracy Only Works When People Are in Charge

Anyone ending a comment with, "and if you don't agree with me, you're wrong," that doesn't have strong empirical data behind it has minimal credibilit­y. I suspect I'm wasting my time making a reply, but I have a minute to burn.



Everyone has a special interest. People with Special interests vote on election day because they are citizens. They have voices and rights because they are citizens. Normally, "interests­" are associated with a "policy." If I'm a cancer patient with a rare tumor, my special interest may be candidates who support faster permission of experiment­al treatments or some such. So the cancer patient will vote for a candidate that matches their interests. If I'm against abortion, I'll vote for candidates who take that position. If I work for a company and support candidates who help my employer, then that's my right.



With contributi­on limits, those 3 people (and everyone else) had a somewhat equal shot at having an equal voice in a campaign. That includes those most special, precious, and uniquely super smart people: those that sit on boards of directors.



The problem has never been that people have special interests - it's each person's relative ability to impose their interests on others. The problem now is that unions and corporatio­ns are given more rights to push their personal agenda. In 2011, it's illogical to agree that $1 of speech equals $25 million of speech.



That inequity is the issue. Portraying this as some amorphous issue of interests is surreal.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

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