All Politicians are crooks.... ummmm...some questions to think about

[radfringe]

The "ALL POLITICIANS ARE CROOKS" is a prevailing sentiment among Americans.

Some use it as an excuse for not voting, others use it as justification for attacking partisanship, and still others just hold their noses, vote for the challenger and hope for the best.

If holding or running for a public office makes someone a politician, and all politican are crooks - who you gonna vote for?

There are 3rd party candidates out there - but what guarantee is there that these particular candidates won't turn out to be or turn into crooks once in office? Do we then vote for a 'lesser evil'? What's the standard for crookedness? How crooked does a politician have to be before exceededing a 'lesser evil' rating?

Along with this is the rhetoric about the public not liking dirty politics and the focus of an campaign should be on issues. Like it or not - DIRT WORKS.

So how do we clean up politics, politicians and campaigns? How do we ensure that office holders will stay clean? Where should oversight responsibilities be - in Congress/State legislatures which are inhabited by politicians? Independent Citizen groups - and who would determine the politically neutrality of these groups?

How do you fix the system?

[magellan]

1. Take all the lobbyists and throw them in Boston Harbor

Then take the money out of campaigns and elections.

It'll never happen, but the only way to stop the crooks from gravitating towards government is to remove the monetary incentives for them to be there.

[Greyhound]

2. The first and most effective action would be to get all the money out of

the system. As long as any private money is allowed to play in politics, there will be graft and corruption. Whether it is lobbyists buying votes for their clients, or office holders selling their support to the highest bidder, it will have a detrimental effect on our political system.

Requiring that legislation be limited to a single issue would help to reduce the rampant pork, and obviates the perceived need for a line item veto.

Forbidding former office holders from working in any field that they had regulatory influence over while in government service for a period of 5 - 10 years would virtually eliminate this form of corruption.

Three things that would completely transform our politics and our government, and two of them cost nothing to work.
:kick:

[Kutjara]

3. Make politicians, like sports stars...

...wear the logos of their sponsors prominently on their clothing, whenever they're in public. That way, we'll always know who they're shilling for. The size of the logo should be in direct proportion to how much money the politician received from that donor. So, for example, oil company shills would hardly be able to move due to the 12' stickers attached to their suits.

The penalty for not wearing a sponsor's logo would, of course, be death.

[Vidar]

4. Not bad at all.

[radfringe]

5. just playing devil's advocate

so far the consensus seems to be to get the money out of politics.. specifically special interest/corporate money

The argument against limiting/banning corporate/special interest money is that it would restrict the right to free speech. So the question that next needs to be answered are groups/corporations entitled to the same benfits/rights under the constitution/bill of rights as individual citizens? Do groups/corporations qualify for the same level of "personhood" as an individual?

Let's say it's determined corporations/groups etc cannot donate to a polticial campaign (this would include all groups, profit/non-profit, 527's, PACs, corporations, individual businesses etc). ONLY individual citizens are allowed to donate and this donation is limited to $2,000 per registered voter. Now, I'm the President of Muchmoney, Inc., I have an eye on a very lucrative government contract to manufacture, install and service musical toilet seats to the military (it tinkles when you sprinkles)

Congressional Representative Will U. Gimmemore, is in charge of making contract recommendations is running for re-election. As an individual voter, I can only donate $2,000 - the same goes for my competitor. How do I get MORE money into Representative Gimmemore's campaign war chest?

One way is to tell people who work for me, and those on the board of directors to donate to Representative Gimmemore in their own names, and I'll reimburse it later in the guise of a performance bonus. With a board of directors and their spouses, employees and their spouses I have a potential pool of say 20 people each giving $2,000 - now I have managed to make a donation of $40,000.