Purchase Power

So one of the big political stories today is about how much money the candidates have raised for their campaigns. Generally we are talking many millions of dollars.

What I am talking about today is the sad fact that it takes a lot of money to become President. The idea behind the way our political system is set up is simple, anyone can run for public office, up to and including the Presidency. Unfortunately this is something that no longer holds true.

In order to be able to put in the required travel time, and buy the needed advertising, a candidate has to spend a lot of time raising money. And I mean, a LOT of money. There are two problems with this, the first being the obvious, not everyone can raise the kind of money that they would need in order to run a modern campaign.

The second, and more crucial matter, is one that you have to look a little deeper at. The only people who can give large sums of money to political campaigns are those who have large sums of money to begin with. There are some laws in place to try to keep any one person from giving too much money to any one candidate, but as we all know, there are ways around those things. So, what ends up happening is that one person, or group of persons, gives a lot of money to a candidate, and, once elected, the public official owes favors to those who gave them the money to get elected in the first place, especially if they want more money in order to get re-elected when the times comes. What this does is to put way too much power into the hands of those who have money, because politicians do what is best for their rich friends instead of doing what is best for the country.

Unfortunately you won't hear anything from anyone who hasn't raised millions of dollars for their campaign, but at least be aware, and keep in mind, to really take a close look at all of the options available to you when it comes to voting, and do some research so you can really see what they stand for, and don't be fooled by the flashiest campaign, or the smoothest looking commercials, because all those things will tell you for sure is who has the most money, not who will do the best job for you and your family, and, more importantly, your country.