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Letter to the Editor The following letter is with regard to my article "Future Shock, Present Apathy" on page 1 of the July issue. editor
You preach to the choir! Yes, Sci-Fi back in the 50's & 60's was great, but it's here now & a lot worse than Heinlein or Azimov could have described. 1984 ain't got nothing on Columbine, etc & the totally controlled TV & newspapers are mere mentions in Berzerker worlds. The one I really identified with & recall is To Your Scattered Bodies Go, by Phillip Jose Farmer. Boy do we need a revolution!! a prisoner
My life's not what's important. What's important is that we need a deeper kind of resistance than anything we've ever thought about. We need to be for somethin', not just against the Russians. Devin William Milford
in the miniseries Amerika
editor
Stray Thoughts
Sam Aurelius Milam III Unlikely I doubt if you're ever likely to find a complete autobiography. Culinary Delight Cold, left-over pizza is one of the finest breakfasts ever invented. Fundamentalist Reformers Beware Sex is a family value. For PayPal payments, use editor@frontiersman.my3website.net. Back issues are available at http://frontiersman.my3website.net/. Also see Pharos at http://pharos.my3website.net.
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Intended Consequences
Jim Sullivan Many political scientists and not a few U.S. citizens think that political campaign financing for general elections is still the biggest problem facing America today. It surely is, say dismissive politicians, if one discounts the shortage of wooden nickels. Although contributions per contributor are limited in amount, candidates may raise unlimited amounts in total. Yes, it has to be transparent and reported publicly but who reads such reports? With all of those dollars, it isn't any wonder that campaigns are with us night and day, week in and week out, year after year, ad nauseam. Unlimited funds what more could a candidate (or a spendthrift spouse, for that matter) want? Why it's downright utopian! Along side of that problem is the perennial one of officials in office taking time away from their jobs and, instead, raising more money to run against their opponents in the next election. Consequently, the nation's business isn't done in a timely fashion, if it's done at all. Something drastic has to be done to remedy the situation. Sure, campaign finance reform has been enacted. It's known as the McCain/Feingold Act, after a Republican and a Democratic U.S. Senator, respectively. It limits the amount of soft money that can be donated to various supporting organizations, like political parties. However, it doubles the amount of hard money that individual contributors are allowed to give directly to candidates. We've now gone through an election cycle and seen how the new, well-intentioned legislation works. Sadly, not too terrific! To be precise, it had at least one unintended consequence. It increased the contributions to and the expenditures of 527 groups, a federal government category for special interest groups which, like the Swift Boat Veterans, spend a lot of money to advertise their own positions. Such ads, and those favoring the other side, wreaked havoc in the presidential campaigns of John F. Kerry and George W. Bush. McCain/Feingold went further than most pundits thought the Congress would allow. What more, then, could the Congress do? Not much! Certainly some new legislation might eventually be wrangled out of the Congress if its two chambers could ever agree. But would that only create some other unintended consequence that lets money flow into the campaign from an unforeseen place? Probably. One little-known idea has been floating around in national political circles lately that might just be the answer that Americans have been seeking. It goes like this. First, Congress repeals the McCain/Feingold Act. Next, Congress takes the cap off of direct, hard money campaign contributions, making them unlimited. Anyone or any group corporations, nonprofit groups, individuals, labor unions, political action committees (PACs), and what have you could make uncapped contributions. All soft and 527 money donations and activity from any source would be disallowed. The first thing that would happen is that contributions would soar. But not to worry. The new, unlimited contribution policy would include a brief caveat written, of course, in small print. It would read, "All contributions to any candidate for a particular office must be shared with other candidates for that office." A small percentage, perhaps 10 or 15 percent, of the pooled money could go to minority candidates. That could be based on their party's performance in the most recent past election. Once major candidates are seen sharing all campaign funds received, regardless of the source, the contributors are going to yell, "Hey, wait a minute! Why should I give any more money to my candidate? He has to share it with the opposition and I'm not about to donate to the other side!" At that point, campaign contributions would start to dry up faster than if someone said, "No tax deductions allowed!" After that, there wouldn't be enough money for any candidate to campaign. They'd be left with modest-sized, government-provided, equal-amount funds to be used to run for office. That would limit the length and intensity of all campaigns. The hope is that most campaigns could be completed within a couple of months. Certainly the presidential race will require more time. Four to six months should be adequate. For PayPal payments, use editor@frontiersman.my3website.net. Back issues are available at http://frontiersman.my3website.net/. Also see Pharos at http://pharos.my3website.net.
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So,
with the stroke of his pen on pertinent congressional legislation, the
President of the United States could put America back together politically,
contrary to what "All the king's horses and all the kings men" couldn't
do for Humpty-Dumpty. Voters, then, could elect candidates based
not on the number of their sound-bite advertisements but on their actual
abilities, character, and record. What a novel idea! Once elected,
those officials could devote their time to doing the people's business
instead of perpetually raising funds.
The results of such legislation would be far-reaching. Those in office wouldn't be beholden to any special interest group. Citizens who hadn't voted in years might do so again. Politicians, moreover, would have to become much better at doing their jobs if they wanted to get reelected. More importantly, America would once again have a government of, by, and for the people. Special interest groups and corporations would no longer be the main power base in this country. Isn't this an idea whose time has come? Minority Representation Sam Aurelius Milam III Suppose that, in a hypothetical election, a Democrat received 40% of the vote for a particular office, a Republican received 30% of the vote, and the Independent and Libertarian candidates received 15% each. If the Democrat is declared the winner, then sixty percent of the voters don't get represented. Suppose that, instead, every candidate for an office is always elected. Then, each office would be filled by several officials instead of being filled by one official. Then, the purpose of the election wouldn't be to elect a candidate to office but to apportion the powers of the office between all of the candidates for that office. In the above example, the Democrat would cast 40% of a vote in the legislature and the Republican would cast 30% of a vote. The Independent and the Libertarian would each cast 15% of a vote. Thus, the 60% of the voters whose candidates lost would be represented under my proposed system. Coalitions of minority votes, which actually represented the majority of the voters, might easily outvote the so-called majority. Also, there'd be more representatives in the legislature, several for each seat. Hopefully, that would make it more difficult to enact legislation, of which way too much is presently enacted. A final advantage is that the system wouldn't cost the taxpayers any additional funds. The Democrat would get 40% of the salary for the office, the Republican would get 30% of the salary, and the Independent and Libertarian would each get 15% of the salary, all according to the will of the voters. The more candidates there were for an office, the less each would expect to be paid while in office. Thus, the process would inherently limit the number of people who ran for office. County Representation Sam Aurelius Milam III Politicians have a vested interest in making things as complicated as possible so that they can protect their jobs. Consider electoral districts. They've been modified, revised, and gerrymandered so that some of them remind you of spaghetti, snakes, or worms. There's a better way. Every state in the U.S.A. is already divided into counties (or parishes or whatever). Those counties are the next political unit smaller than the state, like the states are the next political unit smaller than the Union. Instead of voting by electoral districts, why not vote by counties? The people of each county could elect a number of state assemblymen proportional to the population of the county. The county board of supervisors could appoint two state senators from each county. Then the people of the counties would be represented in the state assembly and counties would be represented in the state senate. There isn't any need for electoral districts. As with most good solutions to a problem, this one has benefits beyond the immediate situation. In this case, the change would also tend to cause a state government to become a federation of politically independent counties. That decentralizes authority and moves the power closer to home. I like it. For PayPal payments, use editor@frontiersman.my3website.net. Back issues are available at http://frontiersman.my3website.net/. Also see Pharos at http://pharos.my3website.net.
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Acknowledgments My thanks to the following: Sir James the Bold; SantaClara Bob; Lady Jan the Voluptuous; Lord Jeffrey the Studious; and my mother. editor
Alternate Meanings for Words
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For PayPal payments, use editor@frontiersman.my3website.net. Back issues are available at http://frontiersman.my3website.net/. Also see Pharos at http://pharos.my3website.net.
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