I have given considerable thought to a political career, but not so much to running for office or serving in an appointed capacity as to being an activist working on various civic reforms and social justice issues. Being a politician or bureaucrat in the traditional sense has no appeal to me but I can see myself working for nonprofit groups to bring about social change. Our democracy is in trouble in this country, and even though I was generally pleased with the results I did not care for all the billions of dollars that were spent. I have heard that it might have been $7-8 billion altogether, but there is no way of knowing thanks to the Citizens United decision and all the secret money that has flooded into the political process. To my mind, this is just another form of corruption on a massive scale and I would want to get involved with organizations like Common Cause or People for the American Way that are working to restore our democracy.
I read the Center for Responsive Politics, and I know very well that billions of dollars was already corruption the political system even before the Citizens United decision. Most of this is coming from the wealthy and big business interests for the purpose of serving their own narrow agendas rather the common good of all the people in this society. Even in 2000, over $3 billion was spent on the presidential elections, increasing to $4 billion in 2004 and $5.3 billion in 2008, while this last election was simply off the charts. Billions of dollars are also being spent in the off-year elections, which leads me to question very seriously whether we still have a democracy left at all (OpenSecrets.org, 2011).
I believe that Citizens United was one of the worst Supreme Court decisions since Dred Scott in 1857. In earlier Supreme Court decisions like Buckley v. Valeo (1976), the majority had found that uncontrolled spending on elections led to “corruption or the appearance of corruption” (Hasen 583). John Roberts, Samuel Alito and the other conservatives on the court have effectively abolished all limits on campaign spending, however, at both the state and federal levels (Hasen 587). Because of Citizens United, it would take an amendment to the Constitution to restore some kind of rational and democratic control over donations, and this is what I think should be done, even though it is very difficult and will take many years. Perhaps it can never be done and democracy will completely die, but it is still worth making the attempt.
This is the most important issue that I would like to work on as a political activist, but a secondary one would be abolishing the Electoral College or at least changing the state laws so that the presidential candidate who receives the majority of the vote will always win. In recent elections, almost all the money has been spent to win a few key swing states like Ohio, Virginia and Florida, but if the Electoral College were abolished then the campaigns would have to organize in many other states since all votes really would count (Raskin 62). Even better, there would never be any more Supreme Court decisions like Bush v. Gore (2000), which was a travesty of justice and a pure display of partisanship (again) by the five Republican justices. In this they even ignored the constitutional role of Congress in decided disputed elections, and offered no real logical case at all why the election should have been given to Bush by a 5-to-4 vote (Ackerman ix).
Right it seems to me that the very wealthy, large corporations and various special interests are trying to buy or elections, which means this country is really in danger of becoming an oligarchy or an aristocracy. I want to work against this in any way that I can, but with organizations since one person alone cannot accomplish much. I think there are some other important issues that I might work on, such as abolishing the Electoral College and allowing presidents to be elected by a majority of the popular vote, but I regard campaign finance reform as the first priority for political activists. Perhaps what is needed most of all is Supreme Court reform or at least some limitation on its sweeping powers, but I have never really been sure what to be about it since it was designed from the beginning to be the most elitist and antidemocratic branch of government.
WORKS CITED
Ackerman, B. Bush v. Gore: The Question of Legitimacy. Yale University Press, 2002.
Hasen, R.L. “Citizens United and the Illusion of Coherence”. Michigan Law Review, Vol. 109.581, February 2011: 581-624.
The Money behind Elections, OpenSecrets.org. Center for Responsive Politics, 2011.
http://www.opensecrets.org/bigpicture/index.php
Raskin, J.B. Overruling Democracy: The Supreme Court vs. the American People. Routledge, 2003.
