I have learned politicians are only loyal to their parties. They may represent the many PAC’s but they absolutely represent their parties. Regardless of which party you are registered as you should leave the party and don’t send them anymore money. You will see soon an alternative. In my House District, 12th District of Ohio, Pat Tiberi is the elected representative. Pat actually represents the Republican party, not you. He voted YES on the Wealthy Welfare bailout. I looked into Pats campaign contributions and all are from well funded PAC’s and special interests and of course the Republican party.
First of all stop donating to political parties and donate to a local Non-connected PAC. If there is not one create one. Creating one is not too cost prohibitive. Go to your neighbors and discuss you city council persons work or lack of. You could talk about the current bond issues and taxes. You will find you are very close on the ideas that directly effect you.
You should talk to about 12 people and have the folks you talked to let you know if you want to change those issues. You can’t do much alone but if you could get between 50 to 100 people you have a good base. If every person donated 100 bucks and 24 hours a year a lot could be a catalyst of change. You total of $10,000 and 2400 man hours of labor could make or break an election.
A city council race, school board, levy issue, or a initiative petition costs various amounts depending on where live. The point is you and your neighbors can put on commercials, buy advertising, canvass, and create a forum of discussion. The key is you are doing it, you are in charge, and you say when it is over. If you stopped donating to the parties and the candidate directly you have put a double whammy on the parties’ candidates. Power without money is like a car without gas. You do what I am suggesting and they parties will be calling you and saying “what can we do to get your help” or “can we talk?” The reason for this is simple you are taking the air out of their candidate and you are going to force them to spend a lot of money and effort to get this person elected. You have their attention and you also hold their fate in the next election in your hands. They will call you back when you have an issue to discuss.
The reason I am saying just deal with small races is the parties don’t fund them very heavily. The best thing you could do is weeding out the idiots, political hacks, special interest candidates, and the politically entitlements. The point is to weed them out while they are a young weed. If you nail them 2 to 3 times and they loose their elections, you cost the parties a butt load of money and a lot of energy. The best part is you have ended the career of a politician that does not support your issues.
Idiots are people not smart enough to do the citizens business. Idiots is probably the wrong term, lets say ignorant. If I have not invested time to understand your issues and desires. They also have not seen the necessary life experiences to have ideals and the ability to formulate and implement a plan
Political hacks are the worst wastes of water and sperm. These people are usually a dynasty candidates or a person that has earned a lot of political debt. A dynasty candidate is a person with right name. You know what I mean if your name is Kennedy and you are in Massachusetts, you could be governor at 18 years old. A political debtor is a person that is a regular donor and knows many with money. If you can get the party access to mountains of cash you can be anything.
Special interest candidates are people of notoriety for very good acts of citizenship or controlling mountains of cash for a influence group. These people are very dangerous, they have no history to look at and they are thrown to the wall to see if they stick. If they stick you may have a candidate that is popular and fails to meet your needs. They are of interest for Weeding Out.
Political entitlement is what I call a legacy. I lost my race as such and such. I need a job and I have supported you in the past what can I run for. They put this reject on your ballot and you usually will have to swallow.
Non-connected PAC’s are the alternative for the independent voter that is wanting some involvement and power at a modest price and effort. Are you choosing the least damage candidate? Would it not be nice to have a candidate report that lists the facts first, then a trend analysis, followed by a projection given the past. You have issues that have needed resolved or changes needing to be made. You pull out your candidate report and ask questions of your concerns and comments. You can’t get a politician to address you with anything more than a form letter. You want a Non-connected PAC, because you have the information and you have the political might to pressure those you helped elect.
A Non-connected PAC is not hard to create or maintain. It is similar to a church or non-profit filing for forms. The Non-connected PAC could unify money and efforts to support local democracy. When you send your money to help the party your money is placed in a general pot, it supports the parties’ candidates, whether you support those candidates or not. If they have surplus money it is for the next elections or sent to other candidates anywhere in the US. The party also is a top down organization. They are not guided by people here, they follow orders from people that don’t have loyalty to you. The party is controlled by the folks out of state. This is true regardless Republican or Democrat. When you give to a party you are sending you money to a post office box with a child’s wishes that is does good.
The non-connected PAC work well. The Non-connected PACs allows you to unify your vote and you have no loyalty to either party. Your Non-connected PAC is close to you, you have input, you can guide it, and you can narrow the functions of the PAC. Narrowing to support a candidate or even to smite a candidate. You can make and advertise for or against a candidate. When you are paying the fiddler you call the dance.
With a non-connected PAC you have made it easy for any good candidate to approach you and solicit you and your group. If you dislike all candidates you can get an independent and run yours with your support and probably win. You also have regular meetings on levies, bond issues, school board, and commissions. This is another chance of weeding out early. A lot of political wannabees start in school boards or levy committees. You are helping to select the candidate pool for both parties. People need to know who is planning to raise the property taxes, school board plans, or land usage committees.
While this group exists and gets some notoriety for their activities people will want to join. A note: Set maximum size and when you reach that help people like yourself create their own Non-connected PAC. Share resources and allow the boards of each have a monthly luncheon, and coordinate activities. Doing this allows you to compare notes, share data, share costs, and overhead.
On a national level give your hard earned money to PAC’s that support your top three issues. Again never give the money to a candidate or party. These people take the money and use it as if it were their own. They can use your donation to support ideas and campaigns you disapprove of. If you stay narrow in your support you can be reasonable assured that the donation is used to support the issue you support.
I hope we begin weeding out as necessary so we don’t have to work hard to remove entrenched representatives with war chests. If your prevent them from getting there you dont have to remove them later. A wealthy man or politician can afford anything but a conscious. Give politicians a conscious, it will drive them nuts.