Can We Fix Our Election Process?

I don't see our Federal political process getting any better until we take the money out of campaigning. It has become obvious that donations are nothing more than bribes or at the very least the appearance of bribes. Just the appearance of a bribe can get an Government employee fired. Candidates for public office should be required to avoid all appearances of taking bribes so they should not be able to take money from their party, individuals or corporations. I feel the Supreme Court made a huge mistake in their decision to give corporations rights. People are the only entities that have rights. Rights are endowed on the people by their Creator. Governments can't bestow or remove rights.

One way to take part of the money out of the elections process would be to repeal the Seventeenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States. This would return the process of electing Senators to the Legislatures of the States. Repealing the Twelfth Amendment would return the election of the President back to the electors appointed by the State Legislature. Both of these actions would reduce the number of people who could unduly effect these elections so it would be easier to tell if any corruption had taken place. We are then left with the election of our Representatives. Because the districts in the states from which our Representatives are elect are relatively small, I think any corruption can be easily detected.

A wider solution to the influence of money problem would be to remove all campaign contributions. Because such contributions can and do give the appearance of bribes, I don't feel to deny them would violate the Constitution of the United States. These are current of hopeful public officials under article one of the Constitution and therefore don't have the right to freedom of speech. Government officials don't have rights, they only have powers delegated to them by the states and the people. Candidates must be able to get their message out in a reasonable manner. To do so, I think each candidate should get equal time on all media. We should only hear from the candidates themselves and all claims must be honest and verifiable. If a claim is proven to be dishonest the candidate should be removed from consideration for office.

Because government is controlled by corporations, I'm under no illusion that this proposal would ever come close to being implemented in our current form of governance. Because there are so many citizens waking up to the corruption and abuse of our elected officials, I do hope this can start a debate about how we can return to a Constitutional Republic.