Politics: Money over Politics

What do you think about lobbying politicians with money? Or large campaign donations?

The problem with the current private campaigns is that it swings for the wealthy. It only allows the financially stable to run. Then corporations and the rich make large donations to their campaign. If the candidate is elected, they have to carry out policies in favor of those who gave them the money. Even if a candidate isn't the best option, they can still be elected if they have enough money to advertise and persuade swing votes.

I recently heard someone suggest the idea publicly funded campaigns, as in government sponsored. The idea seems plausible to me. The government would grant each candidate the same amount of money to spend as they wish for their campaign.

After considering it, I don't know how well it would work in a Democracy. First of all, how do you judge who gets the grants? Do you just give them to the most popular 3? I also admit, the idea is socialist. But so is Democracy. I guess the debate boils down to how a nation should govern. Should our government be capitalist like our economy, or socialist in favor of equality?

I think that socialism is better than capitalism in some situations, but an economy must still be capitalist to uphold a nation imo.

The problem is that the US seems to follow the voices of Christian conservatives at the moment, so any change like this would never make it through this administration.

The other problem with government sponsored campaigns is that technically in our Democracy you have the right to vote for anyone you wish, so it would be unethical to only give grants to the mainstream voices.

Either way, I think a publicly funded election would be better than what we have now. It would have its own share of problems tho.

Even in local elections for our governors, the problems still persist. Really only the people that can afford TV spots have a chance at being elected.

What I do know is that privately funded government is wrong, and totally defeats the purpose of having any kind of election in the first place. Who do we end up getting to choose from? The corporate-sponsored conservative or the religiously-funded Christian? What a Democracy :D