Too much money

Good morning everyone:


With the Iowa caucuses just around the corner, all the talk in the news and NPR (yes some of us still listen to it) is of the candidates: their respective rankings in the polls and how much money they've raised and spent on the election trail thus far. Upon hearing this news I became slightly ashamed. Not from my lack of knowledge of all of the candidates or their policies, but of how much money we as Americans are wasting in this process. I love this country, and anyone that knows me can attest to that fact. I still get tingles from hearing the Star Spangled Banner. But, the process by which we elect our leaders is almost ridiculous. The whole process is not set up to pick the best person for the job, but to pick the person who can convince enough rich people and/or companies that he'll do what they want.

This election is already the most expensive campaign in the history of the United States. This coming at a time when many Americans are losing their jobs to outsourcing, their homes to foreclosure, are in debt, or are working until they are half in the coffin because they can't afford retirement. Don't you think that this country would be better served by candidates setting examples by finding ways to make their money go further, or better yet, if it didn't cost anything at all to campaign!

What if we took those millions of dollars candidates are spending on television adds hocking Christmas or smearing their opponents, who may well become their future running mate, and put it to some good use. The money could go to feed, educate and house homeless people. Or go into some kind of tax break for businesses who stay in America. Or even go into education funds, so that we can not only pay teachers what they should be paid, but make it affordable for anybody to go to school without incurring a ridiculous amount of debt. The posabilities are endless.

I know what a lot of people are thinking reading that. That money helps fuel the economy. It goes to the media which helps with advertising, which helps with manufacturers, which helps with jobs. BULL! Yes, taking money away from the media may in the short term effect this years revenue stream for the media, and potentially some other jobs down the line. But it is time to stop looking at the short term people. This nation, as great and wonderful as it is, is killing itself, and possibly the rest of the world with our short-sightedness. With the programs that could be funded by these campaign funds, all of our futures would be brighter.

The transition wouldn't even be so difficult. For all of you who haven't noticed yet, the face of elections is changing. Just like the advent of TV, the internet will soon become the primary medium for discovering who our next leaders should be. Once that happens, or as it is helped along, candidates wont need as much money for campaining anyway. Obviously they will still need some, and a good amount because there are still visits to the states. I don't want to take those visits away, because you can only trust what you read to a certain degree, but we could do with less annoying commercials that the general public doesn't really listens to anyway.

Let's also not forget that this would also balance out the playing field. There are great candidates out there who would be the best thing to ever happen to this country that no one knows about because they don't have millions of dollars to pay for advertisers and campaign managers to put them on the air. I'd rather have a leader who is intelligent, decisive, articulate, and penniless than one who is friends with some billionaires. But that's just me.