Posted on 01/13/2023 5:00:48 PM PST by ProgressingAmerica
No doubt that election integrity issues have to be fixed. But here in California we have term limits. It is, imho, worse than career politicians. They get their 2 terms to do exactly as you described but worse. They reward favors and “pay forward” other favors so they can secure themselves a nice cushy public affairs job (financed by taxpayers of course) when their term expires - that, assuming they do not get elected to some other office. Term limits changed nothing in my estimation. And it added another twist - there is no institutional memory. They start something today but are not around when it gets finished or when it needs to be repealed/repaired/replaced. There is nobody with any vested interest in seeing anything through. And there are no political consequences for their screw ups because they are forced out anyway.
On another thread I proposed that we should also take the political affiliation off the ballots. People are free to associate with any party they want but there is no reason we have to list their party on our ballots. It is no more logical than listing which social club they belong to, or which house of worship they pay dues. Campaign finance laws didn’t change anything in fact they just made the party bosses more powerful. Take the party affiliation off the ballot and even, dare I say it, put a cap on how much can be spent on a campaign. Force the candidates to run on their platform; and hold them to it. They can publish all the blogs they want. They can post all the tweets they want. But they cannot blow corporate earnings sized budgets on slews of TV and social media ads, ballot harvesters, hiring door knockers, no PAC money that endorses any particular candidate etc. Make it nearly 100% voluntary (no pay) if you like a candidate you are free to campaign for him/her but do it on your own dime not by campaign contributions. We have to work our way back to the civic minded civil society you and I both believed in.
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