But no, you sent us Congress -- Good God, Sir, was that fair?

[novangla]

I have sometimes wondered why I feel so uneasy about out-of-state monetary contributions on campaigns, and, really, with a lot of the way campaign politics is handled today.  In honor of the Rally to Restore Sanity, Election Day, and me not forgetting my ideas, I'd like you to consider my proposed answer.

The campaign is meant to take the place of

Comments

[teaberryblue]

I agree with you that the solution to campaign finance issues is campaign finance reform, but when the only people who have the ability to solve it are the ones benefiting from it, I think that's highly unlikely to happen anytime soon. Which is why voters do deserve an out, because until the system changes itself on the inside, we do need to be able to have the power to change it from the outside.

Just as many outside donors pay for regular elections in some states as do with hot topic referenda. I mean, look at Nevada right now. Angle and Reid are both taking huge numbers of out of state donations. And, to go back to your own conclusion, the solution to keeping out of state donations in check is not to take away the popular vote on referenda but to curb out of state donations.

The purpose of referenda isn't to say that the people know better than their elected representatives. It is a check to make sure the representatives are actually doing what people want. I'm not sure I'm comfortable with saying "people who aren't informed shouldn't be voting." If I don't feel comfortable with a casino in my community, I should be able to say no to representatives who want to allow one there, regardless of whether I know everything about the benefits that casino will have on my community. Is it a shame that referenda have been used in recent elections to take rights away from people? Yes, it is. But I don't think the solution is to re-assert elitism in a broken democracy when the most broken thing isn't the voters but the funding structure.

[novangla]

I do think we should curb out-of-state donations. I just also dislike ballot initiatives.

My problem isn't that people aren't smart enough or elite enough to make those decisions. It's that decisions made in "punch a ballot" form worry me. Some people take their responsibilities seriously, and write letters to the local paper, and read other letters, and try to find out all the points of view on the issue, absolutely! But it still doesn't match the legitimacy of deliberative decision-making -- because there's also the regular campaign side of things. In some New England states, there are two special town meetings held leading up to an election that has a ballot initiative -- that makes me feel much better about it, but not every state even has town meetings.