In the final edition of the fixing Democracy series (took me long
enough) we discuss the final components of fixing our democracy and getting the
corruption out. So let us begin.
Property and Money: The two final things that form the
core of corruption is property and money. In this case the government
being able to take a person's land from them and using it for themselves or
(unconstitutionally) giving said property to someone else, and money changing
hands to supply subsidies to businesses. In the case of property as per
Amendment five of the United States Constitution, the line "nor shall
private property be taken for public use, without just compensation." has
been perverted. For one, everything as a whole in that amendment
stipulates that if land is to be taken it must be agreed to by the owner.
However, not only has the government ignored the wills of the owners to
take property away, they have even gone beyond public use of that land and
given it to private businesses or entities because the government feels that
they can make better use of the land over the original owners. It is for
this corrupt reasoning that Thomas Jefferson did not want this as part of the Fifth
Amendment. He knew this corruption and deals (with stadium owners, land
developers, etc.) would happen that would take the rights of people away.
As such, the takings clause "only" should be removed from the Fifth
Amendment to stop such acts.
As to money (although property had a
little to do with money as well), let us take it out of politics. We all
agree on that right? Well, this means we have to eliminate the patronage
of businesses, charities and other organizations outside of foreign and
domestic governments. What does this mean? It means that only
foreign (and domestic) governments would be able to receive money from the
federal government and by de facto organizations representing them. This
means no more subsidies to oil companies, or ethanol companies. No money
would go to Planned Parenthood or to charities. Literally, every
organization, businesses, advocacy groups, charities, support groups, you name
it, will not be able to legally receive a single penny from the federal government.
As such, lobbyists will have no incentives to lobby as the politicians
can no longer line their bosses pockets. This also means less big money
going into elections as well save when a business or group finds that the candidates’
views align with theirs as opposed to the status quo of I help you get in, you
owe me attitude. So we will be taking a whole additional chunk of
corruption out of politics by doing this. All it takes however is a
constitutional amendment.
Conclusion: So both these solutions solve
problems. The bigger problem is getting people's support to get them to
be constitutional amendments. Why do we need people to like these two
ideas? That is because our milk is subsidized, our poor are given money
by the federal government, and powerful people with lots of money have a larger
amount of influence and access to our politicians. Sucks doesn't it.
But that has not stopped people before and if we are prepared to practice
what we preach, then be prepared for prices to go up in some places and perhaps
down in others. We can get the corruption out, but it takes time,
patience and a little sacrifice.
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