Brandon Richards, in his Jan. 18 letter to the editor in the Dothan Eagle (“Let's restore the voice of the people”), makes a great argument about corporate influence on elections, but it appears that Mr. Richards could have an agenda. He states that $304,679.91 was donated by corporations on the midterm elections in 2010. He fails to mention that President Obama's reelection war chest is estimated to be more than three times that amount (close to $1 billion). Mr. Richards advocates an amendment to the Constitution in order to make the playing field more equal.
The facts are the Republicans favor corporations mainly because of job creation. Corporations create jobs for every level of income. This is what makes our system of living work. The rich people that Democrats love to call “the 1 percent” cannot sustain supporting over 50 percent of the population. If this number becomes greater, I personally believe more than 55 percent the system will collapse because corporations will simply leave the United States. These people are in business to make a good profit. If you think we have high unemployment now, then keep on badmouthing the 1 percent and we'll see what real unemployment looks like.
To me the answer is not for us to bicker between the parties. Since elections are about democracy, I think no personal or corporate donations should be involved in federal elections. The federal government should set an equal amount to be given to each candidate. No other funds are gift allowed. This should not be hundreds of millions, but between five and $10 million dollars. This approach would serve the American people by forcing the candidates to wait as long as possible before exposing their ideas. This means we would only hear their negative campaigning a few months each election cycle instead of years. As usual, it would be the responsibility of the news media and the Internet to vet the candidates.
If we are going to be fair in federal elections and it not become agenda driven, than I believe any new constitutional amendment should be designed to eliminate private and corporate donations and limit the amount of funds used.
George Barbrey
Newton
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