Now that the mid-term elections (November 1994) are over, most Americans are relieved that they will not have to watch any more political advertising. Just about everyone was getting tired of ads such as: "vote for Proposition 27 to ban and/or regulate everything." Even more annoying were the negative campaign ads, such as: "my opponent used to smoke catnip in college", or even "the distinguished and honorable senator is a pompous windbag."
The voters have been calling for election reform. Can we be spared from the cruel and unusual punishment that the politicians call campaigning? President Clinton has discussed election reform before. He would have probably acted sooner on this issue had he known that the Democrats were about to lose control of both the House and Senate. Now that the Republicans have to power to do something (this doesn't mean they actually will, however), I would like to offer a few suggestions that would revolutionize the methods used to campaign for office.
First and foremost, political advertising always seem to annoy virtually all television viewers. Ads would be banned from the airwaves, except for a separate cable channel that would be set-up (sandwiched between the shopping and infomercial channels), for the sole purpose of running political ads and campaign news. This would spare the majority of television viewers from the ordeal of watching a never-ending string of negative campaigns. For the voter who actually wants to catch-up on the latest political scandals, they would be able watch the election channel 24-hours-per-day. The schedule could be set-up something like this: 3:00 P.M. "Mario Cuomo's Job Hunting tips"; 4:00 P.M. "A live performance of Hillary Clinton's Health Care Reform Band"; 5:00 P.M. "Today's Congressional Indictments"; and from 6:00 P.M. until 6:01 P.M., this channel's shortest program: "The First Two Years: President Clinton's Accomplishments".
One important reform would be placing severe restrictions on political action groups. Until now, they have been effective at gaining influence because they donate so much money to their favorite candidates. In order to restrict their influence, PAC's fundraising methods would be severely restricted. They could only raise money through the following methods: bake sales, bottle drives and bingo games. Since it is virtually impossible to eliminate PAC's, limiting them to selling brownies would give them less influence than when they accepted millions of dollars in contributions.
And finally, if none of these reforms work, how about starting a national political lottery, and simply raffle-off Congressional seats for a dollar-per-ticket. That's right, for only $1.00, anyone could win an opportunity to serve in political office. This would truly put Congress back in the hands of the American people.
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