Dear Mr. President

Make this go viral: Dear Mr. President

Brian T. Watson

Dear President Obama:
 
We know that you will see this letter. Although you certainly don’t have a subscription to The Salem News — where this letter first appeared — we are counting on the many vehicles of social media to make our letter go viral — and thus to be brought to your attention.

We are a collection of millions of Democrats, Republicans, independents, Greens, and many other persuasions, and we are joining our diverse voices together in an unusual act of solidarity to request that you take action to reduce the role of money in politics.

Specifically, we request that you issue an executive order that will require all federal contractors to disclose their political spending. That spending would include all contributions — including those now legally hidden — to officials in the executive or congressional branches. It would also include all lobbying of the two branches.

Corporations spend more than $1 billion a year donating to and lobbying Congress and the federal government, and they receive an average of almost $1 trillion a year in contracts. If the monetary relationships between corporations and Congressmen become exposed, we citizens will be able to clearly see the corruption, and perhaps will react against it.

Even the Supreme Court, in its controversial Citizens United decision, said that increased disclosure rules would be wise so that citizens can see if “elected officials are in the pocket of so-called moneyed interests.”

We understand that your order would not address all of the troublesome sources of money in politics. But it would be a substantive and useful start.

We understand that the order would not establish dollar limits on contributions, nor would it prevent corporations, unions, law firms, trade groups, or other lobbying organizations from offering “reward-jobs” to retiring senators or congressmen — 50 percent of whom take those jobs.

Mr. President, please appreciate what it took for millions of diverse and dissimilar citizens to join together to support and forward this letter. Rising above the current political divisions in our society, we have recognized that today the extraordinary, unprecedented levels of money in politics have created an increasing crisis — one that will only get worse if we cannot get control of it.

We understand that when congressmen — both Republicans and Democrats — are beholden to large, moneyed interests, the loser is not liberalism or conservatism, but the ordinary citizen. That is because Big Money — whatever its ideological paint stripe — is interested first and foremost in protecting its power and prerogatives. Yes, Big Money sometimes supports worthy endeavors, but never when there is a conflict between the endeavor and the continued enhancement of the dominance of Big Money.

Mr. President, think about this: we are liberals who especially fear unchecked corporate power; conservatives who fear unchecked union power; libertarians who fear the overreaching military-industrial partnership; and Greens who fear inaction on carbon emissions; but together we are ordinary citizens who recognize that moneyed power has nearly disenfranchised our voices.

We understand that in the absence of money in politics, we will still have diverse opinions across the electorate and very tough national problems to solve. But we — as ordinary citizens — would rather take our chances letting ideas, reforms, policies, and initiatives be debated freely, openly and honestly, without the corrupting influence of Big Money. We’ll take our chances with a real democracy, rather than a plutocracy.

Today, our nation is faced with deeply troubling economic trends. We have a serious and rising income inequality crisis, an employment adequacy problem, huge wage and salary issues, growing technology and automation threats, and a myriad of long-term economic (including debt) sustainability issues. Resolving all of these (and more) will depend upon our ability to adjust the incentives and operating rules of capitalism — with attention to the good of all.

We will not be able to do that as long as our systems — both economic and political — remain captured by a power elite that is intent on watching out for only its own. And our systems will remain captured as long as it takes $1 billion to run for president, and often $20 million to $30 million to run for Congress. No human politician can accept that kind of funding and remain unresponsive to its sources.

So, Mr. President, we request that you issue an executive order requiring federal contractors to disclose their political donations and lobbying expenditures. It will shine a light into some of the hidden practices that are buying our democracy.

Sincerely, millions of Americans

To the reader: please help this letter go viral, and to the president’s attention. Please forward, share, post, link, like, tweet, email, copy, or otherwise support this endeavor. This is a rare chance to influence a pending presidential initiative.