Justice in Democracy
Ross Johnson is a former California legislator who was named the head of state’s Fair Political Practices Commission several years ago. Regrettably, he has been forced to step down now for health reasons. He has spoken forcefully about the need to clean up what has become the very dirty game of politics. He told George Skelton of the Los Angeles Times that if he had his way, politicians who libeled other candidates would be tossed out.
That would be a good start.
Indeed, I would hope that we would come to a point in our civilization – it seems so far off at the moment – when we would only need campaign oversight entities like the FPPC for use as a help screen. That all candidates would some day conduct themselves in an open and honest manner, with no scurrilous dirty tricks or even bending of the rules. That they would be so clean they wouldn’t need policing.
Every poll suggests that the American people share this sentiment, and it would be a better world if they would demonstrate their views in the polls, and at the ballot box, rejecting any and all who would try to play fast and loose with the rules, both written and tacit. If the public made it a requirement, candidates who would do anything to win, organizations that would be content to lie their way to victory, would find no traction in our thus honest society.
But in the meantime, the burden is on the FPPC and the FEC to try to police the miscreants and evil-doers as best they can. Regrettably, politicians tend to pass measures that can hamstring even the noblest of efforts, perhaps because so many of them benefit from the status quo.
The cost has been enormous. Tens of millions of Americans don’t vote; many because, they say, the system is rigged. Campaign reform is the clear path to greater citizen participation and to a healthy political future.
©2010 SetonnoteS
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