Time For Term Limits and Campaign Finance Reform

Politics
in America
A Story by Edwin M. Rutkowski
http://www.flickr.com/photos/83261600@N00/6465719119/
Sunday, October 21, 2012
Hello! My name’s Eddie Rutkowski and this is my story of politics in America. Things don’t
look so good in our little storybook land right now. But it doesn’t have to be that way. This
story isn’t over yet. The ending of the story depends on YOU! That’s right. You can change
how it ends, so pay attention.

Our system of
government is
broken.
Our system of government is broken. Corruption and corporate greed is becoming
commonplace in our modern world. Many people are upset. They feel that the upper classes
are getting richer while the middle class is shrinking and the number of folks at the poverty
line is growing. A robust middle class is crucial in a free market economy.

Illinois Wins!
Most Corrupt
Governor’s
Office!
We’ve created a system that encourages bad behavior. This is the governor from my home
state of Illinois, Rod Blagojevich. He’s in jail now. Most of the recent governors of my state
ended up in jail. Four governors in four decades. All in jail. They all had one thing in
common: corruption of a career politician.

Back to the
Drawing
Board
And having people like that run our country is not very productive. It’s time to rewrite the
rules. Can you imagine how much better off we would be if our leaders weren’t so corrupt? I
certainly can. I see a world where public servants do just that. Serve the public. But how do
we ﬁx years and years of bad policymaking? Where on Earth do we even start?

Campaign
Finance
Reform
and
Term Limits
Well, while putting politicians on minimum wage is a clever idea, it probably won’t ﬂy. But, if
we were to change just a couple other things, like how keeping large corporations from
contributing to a politician’s campaigns and limiting those who are elected to just two terms
in office, that’d be a really good start. It would be a foundation to build a better government
on.

Growth and Prosperity
If we get rid of corruption in our politics it would lead to more conﬁdence in our government.
If we re-establish our conﬁdence in our leadership, it would have a positive effect on the
overall mood of the country as a whole. That would also lead to other positive changes in
our society, which would eventually lead to growth and prosperity. A trickle-up effect, if you
will.

Unfortunately, many politicians are more concerned with furthering their own career than
serving the public. And that’s got to stop. There’s a lot of good ideas out there. There are
many ways we can go about solving this problem, and I’m going to focus two of them today:
Campaign ﬁnance reform and term limits.

But let’s
back up
a bit.
But let’s back up a bit. Our story starts a couple hundred years ago, when our country was
new. Once upon a time, America’s politicians started off with good intentions. They we’re a
bunch of pretty smart fellows, you know. They designed the greatest system of government
on planet Earth. Everything was going pretty good. For a while anyway.

More Money Than Politics
But then later some laws were changed or added. Many seemed to favor the upper classes
and corporations. One new law made it okay for large corporations to indirectly contribute
large sums of money to a politician’s campaign through political action committees, or PACs,
which makes elections more about money than politics. Many people are very suspicious of
these new laws.

. http://www.flickr.com/photos/9302703@N02/2056690287/
Climate of
Corruption
And that shifted the balance of power to the upper classes and the corporations, and also
created what I call a “climate of corruption”. Corporations in this country now have many of
the same rights as private citizens. Our leaders are no longer interested in serving the people
who voted for them. They are more concerned with serving the corporations that ﬁnanced
their campaign.

The only way out of the climate of corruption is to take the money out of the equation.
Unfortunately, thanks to the way the laws are written it’s too easy for high-paid special
interest groups to inﬂuence elections and also for politicians to get rich doing public service.
It’s time to put an end to the career politician.

But in order to achieve campaign ﬁnance reform we must elect leaders who are in favor of
such things. But that won’t be easy. Not too many of them are. We need to educate the
public to demand better from our government. Later on I’ll direct you to some grass-roots
organizations that promote these ideas in case you want to get more involved.

The
President
Has Term
Limits
Why not
Congress?
“Term limits” is another way we can clean up our government. It’s already on the books for
the president. If we limit our other elected officials to only one or two terms in office, we
take away much of the incentive for corruption and set a better stage for our leaders to be
leaders. Two terms is long enough to get real work done, and it keeps the career politicians
out of office.

We don’t
want to go!
No Way!
But that’s going to be a toughie too. On a national level, nearly all the lawmakers in congress
and the president would have to support such a change to our laws to make it happen. Many
of them really like their jobs and don’t want to quit after two terms. And they are supported
by big money interest that don’t want to see their guy retire after only four years.

Simple,
but not
easy
Like many things about us and our world, the answers are elegant in their simplicity -- but
implementing these things on a national scale is not easy. It’s going to take a massive grass-
roots effort to pull this off. Change is hard, but not impossible. Once it gets rolling there
will be a snowball effect. It’s just a matter of getting out there and getting the job done.

So, how does our story end? well, that depends on you, really! It’s up to you and each and
every one of us to get involved and make our voices heard. Alone, maybe one person may
not be able to do much, but in great numbers... watch out! We Americans could accomplish
big things, but we have to work together.

So, where do we start? Well, one obvious answer is to simply get out there and vote. Get
your friends and family to vote too. Why let only a few people decide? Voting is the single
most powerful tool we have as Americans. The more people vote, the more the results are
representative of the majority. We need to get as many people registered as possible.

But vote for independents and third-party candidates who support these initiatives. It’s very
important to educate yourself of the candidates’ platforms before you vote. Most of the two
major party candidates run on familiar platforms, saying pretty much the same things they
have been saying for years. Independents are more likely to favor new and different ideas.

Well, thanks for watching! Now it’s time for all good citizens to go out and be activists! It’s
up to all of us to ﬁnish our little story of politics in America. How it ends truly does depend
on what you and I do. Don’t spend all your free time sitting on the couch. Get out there and
vote and make your voice heard. Together, we have a chance.

TermLimits.org
TimeforTermLimits.org
BrennanCenter.org
Citizen.org
I mentioned earlier that I would tell you where to go to get more information or to get more
involved. These are some of the organizations that promote the ideas of campaign ﬁnance
reform and term limits. I used their websites to do much of my research. Get involved today
and it will make a better tomorrow. Thanks again for watching!

Time For Term Limits and Campaign Finance Reform

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Time For Term Limits and Campaign Finance Reform