Commentary on "Campaign Reform: Blog Stage 7"

"Campaign Reform: Blog Stage 7" has some very wise messages. In his blog, Jmoser states his frustration with the limitations of our two-party politics, as well as the problems that come with private campaign funding and interest groups. He discusses his dissatisfaction with the way a candidate must side with one party or another to be elected, rather than just his political viewpoints. He feels that it is wrong that the candidate who spends the most money on their campaign almost always wins, and thinks that we should ban private funding, and completely rely on government funding, so that everyone has the same opportunities. He then goes on to discuss some possible ways to fix our political system.

I completely agree with Jmoser on the issues of our government, but I think they are much deeper rooted problems than he discusses, of which there are really no solutions. For instance, Jmoser thinks that our political system is strictly two-party because privately funded campaigns are difficult without a political party to help, and greatly favor the rich, but I feel like one of the major reasons for them is the fact of how politically uneducated and inactive our society is. In reality, voters don't really do that much research about candidate's viewpoints. They just know generally what the Democratic and Republican parties represent, then simply vote for the candidate who is representing the party that they tend to side with. For a majority of the population to be able to choose a candidate from an independent party, it would mean that a great deal of research and thought has gone into the political decision-making process, and unfortunately, I don't think that that will ever happen in our society. On the issue of banning all private funding, including interest group donations, I feel like it is pretty much impossible. I think that to some degree it is a violation of our First Amendment, but even if it did pass, politicians and interest groups would likely find some ways around it. It may be pessimistic, but I think that our government is just bound to have these flaws no matter how we may try to fix them.