IMA RANTS ON CAMPAIGNING

I just heard a media spokesperson deliver the news that Joe Biden had thrown his hat in the ring for President in the 2020 Election and the second sentence out of media’s mouth was how much money Joe Biden had already raised. I don’t recall how much money that was, but it was a significant enough amount for the spokesperson to report it, and it reminded me of an opinion I’d developed way back in 2003 when Dennis Kucinich was running for President. At that time, I heard on a radio talk show that a caller had made the comment “that the coming election was not about ideas, but about money and Kucinich wasn’t able to raise enough money to be considered a viable candidate.” As I recalled, no one on the show challenged that idea which at the time seemed to be the operative idea in recent and possibly future elections.

My mind then leaped to the conclusion that if money is the “operative word” then WHY BOTHER WITH ELECTIONS AT ALL; JUST HAVE A MONEY-RAISING CONTEST AND WHOEVER RAISES THE MOST MONEY WILL BE DECLARED PRESIDENT; the election process can be dispensed with and more money saved at the local levels, because they won’t need to pay for voting machines, clerks, ballots, etc.; and since the biggest beneficiary of most of that money is the media, especially television, due to the cost of the ads, the general public doesn’t reap much benefit; and since (at that time) the REPUBLICANS HAD ALREADY OUT-MONEYED THE DEMOCRATS – THAT SEEMED TO BE A FOREGONE CONCLUSION THAT “GWB” WOULD BE ELECTED … AGAIN … AND, IN FACT, HE WAS!

Then, I found among my writings an update on that idea…in 2008 Barack Obama was elected President, and it was said that he/his party raised more/spent more money than his opponent, John McCain. And I asked myself, “Is that the way we’re going to keep electing Presidents?”

And lo and behold, here we are again, in 2019! If this is the way it’s going to be, a hint to ‘would-be’s’: if you can’t raise the most money, you’ll not make it to the top post…unless something happens in the Congress, in the Courts, in the Streets…to change the way that Election Campaigns are conducted and the BIG money is gotten out of the process!