Our society cannot agree on much, but the majority of Americans could get behind publicly funded elections. Conservatives as well as liberals are concerned that a few wealthy people and corporations effectively buy elections and put the people who will do their bidding into office.
In the 2016 elections, according to CBS News, about $6.8 billion was spent on all the elections. That is a lot of money, but if you divide that by approximately 119 million families in the United States, that works out to about $57 per family. Wouldn’t it be worth that amount to get politicians who are not beholden to their donors? Politicians who are responsive to us, the people who elect them.
Yes, politicians who have won under the current system are not likely to change it. However, if we get loud and demand it and threaten to vote them out of office if they do not get behind such a bill, they will have to go along.
Let’s get loud and demand publicly financed elections. At a minimum, all donations and advertising (including to PACs), must be made through the internet and be made public.
Mark Rothacher, Salt Lake City