Unless you want political leaders who are as inept as well as corrupt, stop already with the term-limits memes.
It’s not longevity in office that’s corrupting our political system, it’s money. You could replace every member of Congress and Senate every year and get the same result of what we have today – a state and federal government that have been sold to the highest bidders.
The only difference terms limits would bring would be the election of leaders with less experience and less knowledge about government than ones we already have, leaders who would be more prone to making mistakes.
Here’s why: It takes a pile of other people’s money for a candidate to win election under our system of government. Term limits don’t address that, and in politics — as in life — money is everything. In 2018, winning candidates for seats in the U.S. Senate spent an average $16 million on their campaigns. The average for candidates elected to the U.S. House of Representatives was $2 million.
In the same year, U.S. Sen. Rick Scott, a Republican from Florida, spent a cool $63 million on his campaign to represent the people in Florida. But the problem is not just a Republican thing. Democrats are as complicit. U.S. Senator Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat, owes his office to Wall Street contributors.
Here in Alaska, with its tiny population, winning a seat in the state House of Representatives costs an average $90,000. Candidates for a seat on Juneau’s borough assembly sometimes spend around $20,000 on their campaigns.
Even if terms of office are limited, with hoped-for “citizen legislators” replacing stale, old, corrupt incumbents, the challengers are still going to need that kind of money to get elected.
Where does that kind of money come from? It comes from wealthy people or powerful groups or individuals who want things that only elected candidates can give them in return, things like tax breaks, exceptions from laws or regulations that apply to the rest of us, government contracts or outright distributions of cash. That’s the way the game is played.
But don’t take it from me. Take it from Bill Bradley, a Rhodes scholar, Olympic gold-medal winner, professional basketball star and 18-year member of the U.S. Senate. In his book, “Time Present, Time Past,” Bradley outlined the gobs of time he had to spend in office just raising money for re-election and the very real pressure that comes from accepting campaign contributions.
Certainly, Bradley would know a thing or two about handling pressure.
In a moment of honesty rare for politicians anywhere, Bradley wrote there’s really no question of which phone he picks up if gets two phone calls at once – one from a generous campaign contributor and a second from a little, old pensioner from Passaic. In order to ever hope to serve the little, old pensioner, he first had to take the call of his fat-cat contributor.
Under our system of government, the little old pensioner and the fat cat each only get one vote to cast for Bradley, but in actuality the weight of their votes are vastly different. As Haines sage Ray Menaker liked to say, “He who pays the piper calls the tune.” We are loyal first to those who give us money. That’s not corruption. It’s human nature.
About the only plausible way to “get money out of politics” is for our governments to adopt campaign spending limits, eliminate private funding of campaigns and finance them publicly. That is, with your tax dollars. Horrors, you say, to have your tax money go to political candidates?
The real horror is that our federal and state election systems are a sham and a national disgrace. Other nations, where campaigns are financed by the public, rightfully compare ours to straight-up prostitution.
Here’s the payoff with public financing of campaigns: We – that is every voter – would own an equal share of the people who are elected represent us. U.S. Sen. Bill Bradley would then get a choice of whose phone call he was taking, and whom he was putting on hold. That’s not how it works now. And it’s the reason our representatives aren’t necessarily working for us.
Former President Donald Trump owed his election to Vladimir Putin, for the love of God. Is it any wonder Trump spent the next four years attempting to divide and dismantle our nation?
There’s a lot of dirty money in the world. If we don’t want dirty politics, we’ve got to keep the dirt away from our politicians.
*Bill Bradley now works for Issue One, a bi-partisan effort to reform our election system. If you want a cleaner and more responsive government, check them out.