CAMPAIGN FINANCE REFORM

“The growth of the Nation is and all our activities are in the hands of a few men. We have come to be one of the worst ruled, one of the most completely controlled and dominated Governments in the world-no longer a Government of free opinion, no longer a Government by conviction and vote of the majority, but a Government of opinion and duress of small groups of men.” -President Woodrow Wilson

“The real truth of the matter is, as you and I know, that a financial element in the large centers has owned the government of the U.S. since the days of Andrew Jackson”. -Franklin Roosevelt, from a letter to Colonel Edward House in 1933.

“Who are to be the elected leaders of the Federal representatives? Not the rich more than the poor; not the learned more than the ignorant, nor the haughty heirs of distinguished names more than the humble sons of obscure and unpropitious fortune. The electors are to be the great body of the people of the United States.” -Quote from the Federalists Papers

“The money power preys upon the nation in times of peace and conspires against it in times of adversity. It is more despotic than monarchy. More insolent than autocracy, more selfish than bureaucracy. I see in the near future, a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country. Corporations have been enthroned. An era of corruption will follow and the money power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until the wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the republic is destroyed.” -Abraham Lincoln

Many top level Democratic and Republican politicians, so-called political leaders, have and are continuing to transform their Parties into institutions of self-proliferation; Parties which are representing only their interests, and the interests of their campaign contribution financial angels. Thus, monopolizing and subverting our nation’s political process as they transform their political Parties into organizations that no longer represent us citizens. Indeed, many politicians in both major political parties are so infatuated with their own rhetoric they fail to address many of the overwhelming needs of our American struggling masses.

I, Vic Roberts, believe that one of the most important political issues for us laboring class people, small business operators and family farmers, yes, we of the American struggling masses is campaign finance reform with “Clean Money” public financing of election campaigns-especially for federal elections.

Only a fraction of 1% of the voters of the United States make political contributions of $1000 or more, and 4/5ths of all political donors have annual incomes exceeding $100,000 a year. In the 2000 election cycle one-tenth of one percent of Americans made a political contribution of $1000, but those 340,000 individuals accounted for fully one billion dollars in the political process, an amount that could be doubled under the Shays-Meehan so-called campaign finance reform legislation. Any campaign finance reform legislation that does not include public financing of election campaigns is inadequate.

A single $10,000 a plate Senate fund-raiser was expected to raise at least $6 million; also a single Republican Party Washington, D.C. insider fund raising event brought in almost $24 million, and another fund raiser brought in over $30 million in political investments in the Republican Party. In 1996 a reported $2.7 billion, and in 2000 in excess of $3 billion was invested in federal elections. In the 2000 election cycle at least 194 House candidates had over a million dollars invested in each of their candidacies, with many more candidates nearing the million dollar mark. Thirty-four House candidates had over $2 million invested in their candidacies. There was over $11 million invested in one hotly contested Congressional seat alone; in another race a single candidate had $7 million invested in his candidacy.

The House seat investments were paltry compared to the investments made for Senate seats; in the 2000 election cycle there was a reported $68.6 million invested in contesting one Senate seat alone, another at the cost of over $65 million. How much was invested unreported, and why are all those millions of dollars being invested in jobs that pay around $150,000 a year with very few patronage jobs available?

In the 2000 election cycle, the petroleum industry invested a reported $29 million (how much unreported?), which invested in each recipient Republican politician’s candidacy an average of $36,000, while the average investment of $14,000 was made in each recipient Democratic politician’s candidacy. Naturally, those political investments will be greatly rewarded through new legislation in the works that provides subsidies and more tax breaks, provisions worth billions of dollars to the oil and gas interests.

Electric utilities invested a reported $19 million, and the mining industry reported investing $6.6 million in the 2000 election cycle, which resulted in a federal energy policy that provided billions of dollars in new tax breaks and incentives for energy related industries. After the finance and credit card industry invested a reported $9.2 million in campaign contributions, with $2.3 million coming from one bank alone, the Washington puppet politicians passed the most pro-industry protection, and anti-American struggling masses legislation in history.

After investing $34 million in the 1998 election cycle and mega millions more in the 2000 election cycle, the international corporate defense contractors are eagerly anticipating the returns on their investments; returns of mega billions of dollars in government contracts; contracts due to President Bush/Cheney resurfacing the National Missile Defense (Star Wars) project; an estimated $230 billion project that cannot discern a missile from a decoy.

In his losing campaign for the presidency Al Gore had an astronomical $133 million invested in his candidacy; also, there were millions more invested indirectly through so-called soft money, and in unreported investments. There was a reported record $696 million (unreported?) invested to elect President George W. Bush and a GOP congress, those investments was made before the 5 puppet politician appointed Supreme Court Judges virtually gave the Presidency to Bush (and none dared to call it treason). Why are those millions, even into the billions, of dollars being invested in the Washington politicians candidacies by powerful wealthy individuals, and special interest groups; wealthy investors who out spent labor by 15 to1 in the 2000 elections? Obviously those investments are giving good returns because the level of investment is continually rising. The McCain-Feingold so-called campaign finance reform legislation actually doubles (from $1000 to $2000) the legal amount of campaign contributions individuals can directly invest in a candidate’s campaign. REFORM? You decide.

We laboring class people, small business operators, and family farmers, yes, we of the American struggling masses simply cannot match those investments in the political process; if we are to ever have our fair share of representation in government we must have campaign finance reform with public financing of election campaigns. We must have a system in which the candidate’s ideas, character, and leadership qualities are the most important qualifications, and not the amount of money the candidate can raise or spend in their quest for office.

We must have campaign finance reform with public financing of election campaigns as a means of liberating candidates from their dependency on special interest money. The average Senate campaign cost $5.6 million, or a cost of $6.07 a vote in the 1998 elections, and the average House campaign cost $636,000, or $4.90 per vote; in the 2000 election the cost of a House seat went up to over $825,000. Some figures indicated that the presidential election cycle of 2000 was the first $4 billion elections in US history; almost doubling previous political investments.

It has become routine procedure for political parties to actively recruit wealthy candidates who are willing to invest huge sums of money in their own candidacies. As the cost of election campaigns continue to rise the demand for wealthy candidates will escalate at a madding pace.

Today’s campaign finance laws promote begging, bribery, and extortion. In some cases wealthy candidates virtually buy their way into office, as demonstrated by the US Senate seat that, at a cost of $20 a vote, was recently, so-called “WON” by the candidate using the purchasing power of over $60 million of his reported $400 million fortune. In the 2000 election cycle, three Congressional candidates made an average personal investment of over $9 million each in their winning candidacies. Money has been known to be used by well financed candidates to help pick who their opponents will be.

Money does not just talk in politics, it also silences; it automatically keeps provocative new ideas from public awareness because they are effectively vetoed before the public can hear them. Because of the need for campaign funds, most politicians will not promote controversial issues that will make fund raising more difficult. Most antiestablishment ideas or issues are generally reported to be radical and controversial by the New World Order’s evil empire shadow government agent’s controlled media.

Most politicians remain in office by maintaining intimacy with big money sources. The truth is that the real elections are held in corporate suites and living rooms of the rich where only a few elite vote. These are the lobbyists and investors who bankroll politicians that can be trusted to govern in their interest. The New World Order’s evil empire agents go even further, they recruit promising young politicians for their cause, and then provide unlimited money, media manipulation and propaganda, along with their shadow government agent’s manipulation of power on behalf of their chosen politicians. This procedure/tactic is extended to leadership positions of national organizations that affect public policy and opinion, thus, to a great extent controlling public policy and opinion also. Their control over labor unions and our nations judicial system is especially powerful and damaging to us of the struggling masses. The New World Order’s methods are very subtle and cunning, the best money and power can buy; we citizens are conned into believing that we are in control through democratic procedures rather than the truth, their manipulations. In reality our democracy exists to the extent that we are permitted to choose between their chosen candidates; candidates provided by the evil empire of the New World Order to create the illusion that our votes count, and we have control through democratic procedures.

Because of a lack of campaign funds, serious challengers with different ideas are unlikely to be on the ballot for the voters to choose; therefore, we voters face the dispiriting choice: In anger, do we not vote, or do we go along with the disappointing status quo. Making people choose between anger and disillusion feeds the downward spiral toward the demise of our nation’s remaining vestige of democracy. Restoring creditable accountability in our representative system of government to a robust democratic-republic will be difficult. However, the saving virtue for us Americans is that we do not always believe (and rightly so) what we are told by the authorities. Despite the New World Order’s agent’s blanket control of the media’s propaganda for the status quo we sometimes find the truth about things.