David Obey and Barney Frank call for publicly-funded congressional campaigns.
Either taxpayers en masse pay for campaigns, or we have our current system of legal bribery. The “small donor” revolution of Howard Dean, et al? That’s just “democratizing” (small d) bribery — shaking down ordinary citizens so that maybe they can have a seat at the table, too. That’s not to excuse voters — Democratic and Republican alike — who continue to reward those candidates who merely raise the most cash and carpet-bomb constituencies with ads, as opposed to those that actually look after their interests. But the hole we’re in is so deep, it’s hard to find the latter kind of candidate.
Thanks to dkmich at Kos.
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Of course, the country was founded on the proposition that people with property should have more say than those without property. For example, the vote. I’d argue the current system of campaign finance is just one reflection of this founding bias. No to say it was a good thing — slavery was another founding proposition, for example, and I think there is a consensus we’re better off without it — just to observe this is a subject with deep roots.