LETTER: There is a way out
Dear Editor:
If you are satisfied with the state of U.S. politics under the Citizens United decision read no further. If you see the need for change – for campaigns that reflect what is important to the 99 percent, for candidates and representatives who speak for us rather than for major corporate donors, then please read on.
As has become all too obvious. Campaign finance is the glue that holds in place a system that favors 1 percent over 99 percent: “Them that pays the piper calls the tune.” All of our issues – fracking, corporate tax breaks, fair taxation, single-payer health insurance, living wage, etc. – are affected by the money that is poured into campaigns by vested interests. One senator likens the relationship between elected representatives and special interests to “the ancient art of whoring.” But there is a way out.
This year in New York, we have a chance to make a real change, to pass a bill for public financing of elections similar to the law that has already made a difference in NYC and elsewhere.
At 7 p.m. May 3, at the Rosendale Recreation Center, Fair Elections for NY (fairelectionsny.org) will be showing an award winning documentary film, “PRICELE$$”. Please come to this free event to learn more about Fair Elections and the campaign for public financing.
To quote from the film, “A citizen movement is afoot to mandate a new electoral system, road-tested in Arizona and Maine…. Democracy, after all, is priceless.”
JUDITH SIMON
Saugerties
jrs@hvan.org
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