Time To Answer A Question
"Which shall rule, wealth or man; which shall lead - money or intellect; who shall fill public stations - educated and patriotic free men or the feudal serfs of corporate capital?"
-----Edward Ryan, Wisconsin Supreme Court Chief Justice
That question was posed to Bob La Follette in 1873 by the Chief Justice. Obviously the message hit home to Fighting Bob. We all know what he became and accomplished. Governor, Senator, Presidential Candidate, and reformer of a corrupt Wisconsin government.
I was going through the online newspapers this morning, and I caught an editorial written by Ed Garvey, who had run for governor himself and is one of the founders of FightingBob.com. His article is here:http://www.madison.com/tct/opinion/column/index.php?ntid=88243&ntpid=0
As Garvey mentions, Bob La Follette answered Ryan's question for his generation. Well, now it's time for my generation to answer that question.
On the national and state level, politicians and policies are bought and sold like commoditees at the Chicago Board of Trade. The first question a politician will ask is not, "how will this affect my district, state and country?" The first question is, "how will this affect my campaign war chest?" That may be a bit blunt, but that's just the way I see it. So today's generation of politicians have answered Ryan's question. But they answered it incorrectly and we are paying the price for it.
It takes money to run a campaign. I fully acknowledge that and am asking for contributions myself. But a campaign should not be centered around raising money. And government should not be centered around corporate interests and campaign cash.
So it's easy to answer the question posed by Ryan. Getting people to act upon it is another matter. It's a sad commentary when legislation is required to get leaders to return to the ethical behavior that one should never have abandoned in the first place. But it appears we must head down that route.
Voters and elected officials both have to answer Ryan's question. But then we have to ACT upon it. If the elected officials we send to Madison don't follow along, we vote them out! If they block legislation designed to restore a sense of ethics in government, we must vote them out and put somebody in that will push for ethics. If they push for ethics, we keep voting them in.
Five elected officials were sentenced to prison in Wisconsin in the past few years. More should have been. Two candidates for Governor are accused of having dirty money. A bureaucrat convicted of bid rigging. The common denominator; campaign finance. The thirst for campaign cash is front and center. So let's get rid of it.
I need your contributions to win this election. I don't like it, but that is the playing field that we are on right now. Once I get in the game, we can go about the business of getting rid of the big money influence in our legislature. And after I'm elected, I hope to come back to you for re-election in 2008 and say, "Naw, I don't need your money. Just your vote."
Scroll down a few posts and you'll see what I have in mind for campaign finance reform.
Also check out www.wicleanelections.org
-----Edward Ryan, Wisconsin Supreme Court Chief Justice
That question was posed to Bob La Follette in 1873 by the Chief Justice. Obviously the message hit home to Fighting Bob. We all know what he became and accomplished. Governor, Senator, Presidential Candidate, and reformer of a corrupt Wisconsin government.
I was going through the online newspapers this morning, and I caught an editorial written by Ed Garvey, who had run for governor himself and is one of the founders of FightingBob.com. His article is here:http://www.madison.com/tct/opinion/column/index.php?ntid=88243&ntpid=0
As Garvey mentions, Bob La Follette answered Ryan's question for his generation. Well, now it's time for my generation to answer that question.
On the national and state level, politicians and policies are bought and sold like commoditees at the Chicago Board of Trade. The first question a politician will ask is not, "how will this affect my district, state and country?" The first question is, "how will this affect my campaign war chest?" That may be a bit blunt, but that's just the way I see it. So today's generation of politicians have answered Ryan's question. But they answered it incorrectly and we are paying the price for it.
It takes money to run a campaign. I fully acknowledge that and am asking for contributions myself. But a campaign should not be centered around raising money. And government should not be centered around corporate interests and campaign cash.
So it's easy to answer the question posed by Ryan. Getting people to act upon it is another matter. It's a sad commentary when legislation is required to get leaders to return to the ethical behavior that one should never have abandoned in the first place. But it appears we must head down that route.
Voters and elected officials both have to answer Ryan's question. But then we have to ACT upon it. If the elected officials we send to Madison don't follow along, we vote them out! If they block legislation designed to restore a sense of ethics in government, we must vote them out and put somebody in that will push for ethics. If they push for ethics, we keep voting them in.
Five elected officials were sentenced to prison in Wisconsin in the past few years. More should have been. Two candidates for Governor are accused of having dirty money. A bureaucrat convicted of bid rigging. The common denominator; campaign finance. The thirst for campaign cash is front and center. So let's get rid of it.
I need your contributions to win this election. I don't like it, but that is the playing field that we are on right now. Once I get in the game, we can go about the business of getting rid of the big money influence in our legislature. And after I'm elected, I hope to come back to you for re-election in 2008 and say, "Naw, I don't need your money. Just your vote."
Scroll down a few posts and you'll see what I have in mind for campaign finance reform.
Also check out www.wicleanelections.org
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home