When career politicians are created, they are funded by “donations” from people and companies. In most other countries, and by definition when we were in middle school, these were called bribes. In America, they are called “campaign contributions”, and are even incentivized by tax breaks. I, and most citizens, abhor this practice and I refuse to accept any contribution from anyone. I am not a wealthy individual, but my campaign will be self funded, with the exception of profits from merchandise sales, which will remain anonymous.
One of the top five books I’ve ever read was called “End Legalized Bribery” by Cecil Heftel, which I found in a used book store next to this great European restaurant I worked at while at LSU. Out of literally thousands of books, this little pamphlet (less than 150 pages) seemed to call my name, and it’s ideas have forever changed my life. Cecil Heftel was a self made millionaire from Hawaii where he made his fortune in radio and television stations, and decided to run for Congress as a service to his state and country in the 1980’s and 90’s.
While in Congress, he realized that every elected member spent most of their time asking for contributions and donations and little time solving problems. He then developed a plan to fund all elections through small taxes per each citizen, which is estimated to be $20/yr. The “investment in our republic” would allow for local, state, and federal candidates to draw from a fund once a certain amount of signatures were gathered that supported that candidate. Every candidate would have equal funds in which to run a campaign, which would then be based on ideas and would actually illustrate if said candidate could budget, which would be a literal Godsend to any state house or our United States Congress.
My small campaign is about ideas. Term limits should be implemented, and bribes outlawed.
