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The principle challenges that we face now are: the achievement of genuinely fair elections, putting an end to the elite political class and to political careerism, completing a thorough lobby reform, stopping corruption in the political decision-making process, reforming the mass media and our educational systems..., providing equal opportunity for participation by minorities and both genders, and making appropriate extensions of the democratic process into all spheres of social life. CED Brochure, 1995 |
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From the CED video entitled "Democracy In Time:"
About half of all U.S. Senators are millionaires, and the vast majority of senators are white, male, incumbent lawyers. In the 1996 elections to the U.S. House of Representatives, incumbents had an overwhelming financial advantage, and they won overwhelmingly--despite the fact that polls showed that a majority of U.S. voters felt that congress was doing a poor job. In nearly 40% of the campaigns the winner outspent the loser by a factor of 10 to 1. The candidates who outspent their opponents won 90% of the time, and there are no limits to the number of times this phenomenon can repeat itself.
Career politicians argue that it takes experience to make things work, but veteran office-holders and lobbyists in Maine, the first state to apply term limits to both chambers of their state legislature, were surprised to discover that not only did the legislative process begin to move more smoothly, but also many of the newly elected were not interested in hearing pitches from professional lobbyists!
Proposed Solution: we can put an end to political careerism by making it illegal for a person to hold two elective terms in succession. This would stop the practice of careerists who spend more than half their time raising money for another campaign or another office while they're already in office.
| The Story of Modern Democracy (to be cont.): |