Why Should Money Have Anything To Do With It

James Wigderson has another Thursday Waukesha Freeman column. As usual it’s persuading. It’s persuaded me to think of another way we can ensure fairness in elections, which is what I believe James is in favor. He says this in his column:

Jay Heck of Common Cause estimates the cost of the governor’s race will be
between $35 million and $40 million, a nice-sized Powerball jackpot. But that
only translates to approximately $9.75 per eligible voter in Wisconsin, less
than what you spend on a pizza. What is your vote worth to you?

My vote is worth quite a lot to me. But its effectiveness has been diminished by lobbyists, special interest organizations and industry. What happened to one person one vote?

I say disallow all contributions, including those from candidates themselves (it seems only the wealthy are able to run for office these days). Instead, have all campaigns financed by money from the peoples' coffers, supplied by equal dollar amount taxation of each individual, not based on worth or lack thereof. My proposal includes no contributions from lobbies, organizations or industry.

Television time could be arranged for candidates and their teams to put together televised arguments to attempt to sway voters. No other attempts to do so on television or radio would be allowed.

Oh hell, I know it would prove nearly impossible to insert effective controls into our elective process. But maybe we could gain a little more control than we have now. But busting loose the contribution levels is not the way to go.