When only the wealthy or connected can run for Congress

why are we surprised when many of our politicians, republicans AND democrats, are either corrupt or do not represent the interests of the American people??? When a high income lawyer or wealthy relative of a politician runs for office, how much experience does that person have with fighting for jobs, or medical care or making sure their vote is not discounted. Only a few seem to relate: Boxer, Conyers. The rest vote okay most of the time (exceptions abound, of course: Biden, Clinton) but when push comes to shove, when they need to stand up against the oil companies or with Boxer on making sure Diebold did not count the votes incorrectly, they just put their tails between their legs, and slink away. Why not? They have a cushy job and if they rock the boat, their corporate masters will make them go away.

Our system is broken; maybe term limits is the answer. This corruption and lack of caring for average Americans cannot continue because our middle and lower classes are dying, while Reid, Kennedy, Obama, even Feingold all dine out on the fruits of our labor.

Flame away.

I tried to run for Congress in '04, and it's a totally demeaning experience, spending 8 hour a day, begging people you don't know, for money.

And sitting congressmen have to do it also, but not to the same extent. I saw an interview a while back, with former Senator Fritz Hollings, and he said that for re-election, he had to raise $40,000 per week, EVERY week, for 6 years to finance his next campaign.

If you say public financing is too expensive, it doesn't even come close to what it cost for that last transportation bill, or the Medicare drug benefit.

The press believes if you don't have millions of dollars at your disosal, you aren't a serious candidate.....

So you don't get covered and the donor pool doesn't know you exsist...

1. Expand the size of the House. This hasn't been done since 1920. In Canada, we have 308 Members of Parliament representing a country with about 35 million, whereas in the States, there's only 435 Members of the House for a country of nearly 300 million. It's a lot harder to run a grassroots campaign when you have such a giganto consituency. Cutting the legislator-constituent ration in half would go a ways towards making government more responsive. (Of course if you cut this ratio too much, you wind up with a bloated legislative body, so you gotta find a balance.)

2. Given our envrionment without public financing, state Democratic parties should at least give free webspace to its candidates for Congressional nominations to allow politically-engaged voters to shop for their candidate online. If people actually gave a shit about how this country was run, such a measure would have a huge impact. But the problem is that it's not just the system, but also the electorate that's fucked up. Candidates raise tons of money to buy 30 second spots on TV. Isn't it just a tad disturbing that a video production less than a minute long should have any influence over a person's choice on who they want running their government?

Although I like both Boxer and Conyers...I'll bet they have had their coffers filled with lobbyist monies as well. This is why I personally would like to see term limits enacted along with public financing of elections. That way, no one gets too cushy in the job...they are after all supposed to be our representatives, our voices. ANYONE, and I don't care how progessive they "seem" to be, who's essentially moved to DC and been a long term incumbant...does NOT know how I think or feel...and no longer relates.

There's less democracy when I can't walk out and seriously consider a run for office. All of this has to stop; we need to have public financing of election.