Should We Have A Billion Dollar U.S. Presidential Campaign?

President Obama launched the most expensive Presidential campaign in U.S. history. To pay for it, he held the first of many private meetings with wealthy and corporate donors, all of those meetings off-limits to the news media, which cover only "public events." Inherently, he knows those private meetings are nothing to be proud of as he and his aides collect the money donated in return for future favors.

To compete, his biggest Republican opponent must raise close to or even exceed a billion dollars and will also conduct these private meetings. Congressmen of both major political parties do the same thing, raising far smaller amounts.

This bodes badly for America's democracy and explains why after the financial system nearly collapsed in 2008-09, giant companies, many of which caused the crisis got massive bailouts at taxpayer expense. It also explains why no-one has been held accountable for wrongdoing. Instead, it's business as usual and the Mt. Everest size bonuses never stopped, even when paid for by the taxpayer.

As the military industrial complex is a very generous campaign donor to both political parties, it explains why the money flows so heavily to it in gargantuan contracts, why it can afford to employ directly or indirectly millions of people and why we are in three wars, with more likely to come.

No other nation in the world allows this political madness. Elsewhere, campaigns are brief and usually paid for in whole or in large part by taxpayers, with specific limits placed on cost and on ad buys. We can have this too if only we as Americans unite and raise our voices to demand it. After all this is our nation, not just the nation of those who corrupt it by writing big checks to political office holders they end up controlling.

Dick