somehow we must get out of this consuming push for huge sums of money - it is corrupting and tears the fabric of the Republic.
The only way to handle this is to let anyone donate as much as they want to anyone they want, at any time.
With severe, political death penalty type, consequences for not reporting all contributions, with the true source identified. And donors of over some threshold should also have to make full and complete disclosure.
Restricting freedom is not the answer. Full exposure is the only answer compatible with freedom.
McCain-Fiengold was an attempt, or at least sold as an attempt, to do it the "restrictions" way.
It is NOT the money at all. the money is just a symptom. The problem is that government has grown to control all aspect of our lives and every aspect of business.
If we have the government our Founders intended, it would have a very small impact on our lives. A government our Founders intended would provide for National defense and little else. There would not be legions of bureaucrats spending their days dreaming of ways to control our lives for the sake of the children or the environment.
Instead we are left with a government hell bent on smothering our Liberties and making our lives miserable. I pray to God that somehow Liberty can grow and government can shrink....
Who is on the arab-money-for-oil payroll in DC? Jimmah carter knows very well how to wear the Golden Handcuffs... Bill Clinton just got 131 million for dropping a deal with arabs in the UAE??? How much arab money has McCain received? Probably none.
Special interest domination of the political realm is a symptom of interventionist economic policy - and as we see here, things like campaign finance reform are akin to shuffling the deck chairs on a sinking ship. The levers of government control over private enterprise need to be severed - there is no other solution.
More broadly, the Keynesian/Fabian/Marxist orthodoxy needs to be extinguished before global communo-fascists control American enterprise, politics, the legal system, and the borders; and before they usurp our natural liberties.
And it goes beyond America - western civilization itself will be destroyed under the auspices of internationalism, where the third-world, socialist Europe, and useful idiots here in America will claim vast global authority and transnational powers; the justifications for the elimination of national sovereignty and individual liberty will span from global warming/climate change, to poverty, terrorism, energy resources, and "human rights". Opposition will eventually be considered a hate crime against humanity.
There is a line in the sand, with individuals either welcoming this utopia dystopia, or opposing it. Those politicians on the wrong side of the line are traitors, and all are indistinguishable regarding the most important long-term interests of America. None deserve the support of patriots and lovers of liberty, and all deserve our scorn.
You may not support these anti-American policies, viewing as sane pragmatism the support of politicians with globalist intent (voting moreso against their opposition). The trouble is that your pragmatic support will be taken as implicit support of these policies. When less than 2% of voting Americans are estimated to oppose continuation in the internationalist direction, it will be taken as a mandate, and as a guarantee of stability in the face of anti-American reforms.
I have come to the conclusion that it is the politicians corrupting the businesses not the other way around.
Since politicians feel the need to "micromanage" , "create policy" , or enact reams and reams of regulations at every level of government for the business world, the business world naturally has to bribe the politicians in self defense.
The politicians are extortionists, that is the problem.
Wasn't that what the McCain-Feingold "Campaign Finance Reform" Act was supposed to do -- get the money out of politics?
ROFL
There's only one way to get the money out of politics: Get politics out of our lives.
A smaller government with limited powers would be nowhere near the money magnet that today's federal government is.