Watching a discussion on CNN this morning. According to the political mavens, “Abortion, Economy Top Midterm Issues For Voters.”
Not this voter.
My top two issues are campaign finance reform – reversing the idiotic “Citizens United” decision and getting dark money out of American politics. That’s number one. Universal healthcare, is number two.
Ted Kennedy, was hammering away on the need for universal healthcare in the mid 1970’s. But we still don’t have it. Shouldn’t any thinking, developed culture have universal healthcare which includes comprehensive healthcare for women? Why is this still even a question?
A handful of honest politicians have been trying to get real campaign finance reform passed for decades, and for a while they did, but others then canceled it out, taking things in the opposite direction and leaving us not with transparency, but near-blindness with regard to where the money that funds our political system is coming from, giving oligarchs and giant corporations a free-hand in controlling our government. We won’t be a truly free people until we get big money out of our politics. But we still don’t have that, either.
If I were to throw in a third issue that’s being missed, it would probably be term limits for the House and Senate. And number four, and this is a biggie, eliminate the Electoral College. Elect the president by popular vote. Both, I think, would require amending the Constitution. It would be worth it.
From ballotpedia.org: “Since the national popular vote was first recorded in 1824, there have been four presidential elections where the winner won the Electoral College and lost the popular vote:”
- Donald Trump (R) in 2016
- George W. Bush (R) in 2000
- Benjamin Harrison (R) in 1888
- Rutherford B. Hayes (R) in 1876
Seems to me that these much larger issues have to be dealt with before any of the smaller issues will fall into line with what most people want. Isn’t that what our system is supposed to do? Could that be why so many Americans seem so angry? Because laws aren’t being passed and sometimes presidents elected based upon what most Americans actually want?
Are we really adequately represented in DC? Or is the country increasingly controlled by big, dark money from god knows where?
Nobody’s talking about any of this. Probably because it’s too complex. Not something that will attract viewers.