Campaign Finance Reform

After watching "Big Sky, Big Money," it is clear campaign finance reform is essential to preserve democracy and political equality. With bans and limits on outside groups, such as pacs, and tax exempt organizations, the democratic process of campaigning and elections increases. Excluding special interest groups and labor unions, campaigns are funded by the candidate, political parties, and individual voters. The candidate's support is his party and constituents, meaning he will focus on upholding their interests and beliefs. Candidates will focus on broader populations, rather than satisfying a super PAC, consisting of people that may not even be his constituents, because they gave him millions of dollars. Reforms contribute to decreasing the power these outside donors have. Groups, such as 527s and 501(c)(4)s, are sketchy and untraceable, corrupting the democratic system. For example, in the documentary, one of these outside groups was traced back to only a PO box. If citizens want to know who's funding candidates, they should be able to, but instead we are led to the UPS store, not to people. These groups are meant to be issue based, and not primarily focus on engaging in political activity yet they have composed "hit lists" of politicians they want to get rid of. The system of outside donors is corrupt and their participation in campaign funding is corrupt. The candidate is now serving the minority, over the majority, and that defies the principles democracy stands on. The 1% of billionaires and millionaires control the political system and the 99% of the rest of the population are essentially voiceless and irrelevant. Furthermore, the actions of these groups may not technically be illegal, but morally and ethically, they are wrong. There should not be secret money and it is clear their intentions are not to benefit the public. The nation is a republic, meaning the people give power to those who govern them, but independent groups are undermining this. With campaign finance reform, the influence and impact of PACs and 501(c)(4)s are limited and democracy can be restored. In the article, the voucher system is the best solution presented for this problem.  In this system, the government gives every citizen $50 refundable tax credit to donate to candidates, would match every dollar from private organizations with $5 if the campaign rejects the PAC money, and if the candidate only accepts small donations, the government will match every dollar with $10. This system increases the likelihood of individuals contributing to campaign funding, and this also increases political participation of voters, which has hit its lowest point in 70 years. The candidate would have to support the interests of his constituents, and the government becomes more involved in politics too. With this system, PACs lost a lot of power and the majority will be represented over the minority. Money no longer would mean power.