The 2012 Presidential Campaign Begins Now.
You won't see commercials, signs, or stickers yet, but you should know that anyone who wants to run for President in 2012 has to start now. In fact, you could argue that many of them started months ago. Politicians spend too much time campaigning instead of governing and one of the biggest reasons is (you guessed it) money.
Stinking money.
Because campaigns cost so much, politicians have to get out there to raise every dollar they can. An honest politician will tell you that they spend more time trying to raise money for campaigns then they would like to. It sucks for them and it sucks for us because more time asking for money equals less time taking care of the problems of our nation. So, why do it?
The candidate who spends more gains an advantage. I didn't say they would win, but at the very least they'll get a lot closer than they would've without the money. No one wants to give up the edge they could have by outspending their opponent, so real campaign finance reform probably won't happen from the top-down.
Guess how much we gave as a nation in the Presidential elections of 2008? Actually, you don't have to guess - the information is public and you can find it here. This is a link to FEC's website (Federal Election Commission) that will give you information on campaign contributions, among other things.
$1689.9 million.
You know why they give it to you in thousands of millions? Because it looks less than BILLIONS. That's right, we gave close to $1.7 billion for the Presidential elections of 2008 (which probably started back in 2006) during the Great Recession.
So what did you get for your political contributions?
I guess what I'm getting at is this:
Is this the best way to use our money? What good could we have done as a nation with those resources? What real voter education comes out of the use of those funds? Who gets paid from the high cost of campaigning? Do the people who get paid care about the truth and your voter education or winning the election they were hired for?
You can't blame everything that's wrong with politics on the politicians. People have to communicate their messages and to do that well it will cost you some money. I believe we should donate to causes and people we believe in. What I don't like is how it's out of control. They hire bastards who take the money we donate to feed us sound bites and garbage information. And we eat a lot of it...and complain. I guess the finger can always point back to us in someway.
A friend once told me, "The great thing about American politics is that you always get what you deserve."
One human being, one vote - let's make it an informed one.
- T
And an anorexic percentage of the money spent on television spots go toward actually elucidating what a particular candidate has to offer in terms of political philosophy and actual, viable goals. The bulk of air-time is spent demonstrating the inadequacies of other contestants, which does nothing to educate voters.
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