How You Can Make A Difference In U.S. Political Campaigns

In California, as elsewhere in the nation, we are buried in dirty campaign ads. In the gubernatorial race Democrat Jerry Brown attacks Republican Meg Whitman for hiring an illegal immigrant maid and shipping jobs to China. A staffer called her a "whore."

Mr. Brown apologized for the whore comment. Meanwhile Ms. Whitman claims Mr. Brown wants to raise taxes (something no politician has the courage to do even though our nation is sinking in deficits) and implies he is old, tired and incompetent.

In the midst of this political circus, California finally passed a budget about 100 days late and to balance it, packed it with a wish list of highly unlikely income and with a gross understatement of expenses. This is how states deficit spend, as they fail to address crucial issues and set-up next year's ugly battles. No vision, no change, no working together to accomplish anything.

The Federal government is even worse. Two years ago, a brilliant charismatic candidate was elected president, promising to break the control of lobbyists, crack down on Wall Street's abuses, end the Iraq War, end the military's "don't ask, don't tell," and end our dependence on foreign oil. None of those campaign promises was kept. Meanwhile our nation is sinking in deficits on its way to financial collapse.

The Democratic and Republican two party monopoly should be ashamed. But they are not, for as always, they are both collecting campaign contributions and making secret deals to get that money.

If you are sick of this corrupt system, do something about it. First, get involved but do it when there is no election in process so you can really get their attention. Offer new ideas and a higher standard of ethics. And learn from the lobbyists, this does not happen from a computer keyboard but requires direct contact.

Second, support third parties, for it is competition that will cause the two party monopoly to change. The last time we saw change came in 1992 when Ross Perot scared the Democrats and Republicans and lobbyists by giving the American people an alternative.

Most  fresh, problem-solving ideas come from third parties and I say this to you as a registered Democrat. If you want change, give others an opportunity. For politically what we have now is "too big to fail" and as you've seen with the banks, AIG, Wall Street and other corporate big bailout beneficiaries, it leads to a very unhealthy, unresponsive system that takes your money and squeezes you out.

Dick