[Winona Online Democracy] Hello Everyone, A few days ago, Paul Double made these points: =========== > >3. I "do not agree" with your mixing of the terms wealth and powerful as I >think they are separate issues. Is a labor union wealthy, powerful or >both? Does that then make their membership wealthy? Can the same then be >applied to membership of Green Peace, the NRA, the Sierra Club, MADD, NOW, >etc.? =========== Paul, You make some good points. I agree with you on these points: A. Big labor unions, the NRA, the Sierra Club, Monsato, MADD, and others all can contribute large amounts of money. I don't think a billionaire or Jane Fonda should be able to do that. Corporations and businesses are not people. Elections should be publicly funded to end the influence of legalized bribery, campaign donations. Candidates should play on a level playing field and only be allowed to abide by strict rules governing small individual contributions. (Green Party proposals). It's so sad and scary that it takes millionaries (both Democratic and Republican...heck, even Ralph Nader is a millionarie) to win some elections. Money is distorting our democracy beyond recognition. B. We need to focus on real issues and not let ourselves be distracted by the media's soap operas and shallow coverage. I do not agree with you on these points: A. Wealth and power are one in the same. Show me an example of someone who is wealthy and that does not have some form of power. Don't you think that our society and democracy would look very differant if the wealth was more fairly and efficiently distributed? Hasn't history shown that the more democractic a society is, the more evenly distributed the wealth is? Look at history's worst governments and don't you see the grossest concentrations of wealth and power? B. There is a differance between union and corporate donations. Unions and the Sierra Club contribute millions to campaigns, no denying it. I think that's wrong. Still, by comparison, those donations are dwarfed by coporate contributions. Again, I do not think that corporations or billionaires should be forbidden from making political contributions, I think all non human entities should not be allowed to make contributions. Jane Fonda's and Ross Perot's contributions are both corrupting to our democracy. Even the much discussed and heralded Feingold-McCain Bill that deals with campaign finance reforms doesn't even go half way to solve the problems. What do you think about publically funded elections? Dwayne ---------------- This message was posted to the Winona Online Democracy Project. Please visit http://onlinedemocracy.winona.org to subscribe or unsubscribe. Please sign all messages posted to this list with your actual name. Posting of commercial solicitations is not allowed on this list. Report problems to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
