It’s unfortunate that, in this year’s election, Americans were forced to vote against what they perceived as the greater of two evils (the two evils being almost equal in this case). That’s not how the system is supposed to work. The system is supposed to allow us to vote for the best of the best.
But money has corrupted our elections and allowed special interest and deep pocketed groups to buy them. Those groups control the selection of candidates for public office and they control the policies of those officials once elected to office by paying for their re-election campaigns. Through their control of members of Congress, they control the selection of Supreme Court and Federal Court judges who make decisions in their favor. They also control the flow of information by drowning out other information sources with propaganda and by restricting opposing views through outright ownership of the media. All of this is enabled by laws and court decisions allowing unlimited financing of the political process and by castrating anti-trust laws.
Clearly, if we ever hope to regain control of our democracy we are going to have to restrict the flow of money in the political process which means overturning Citizens United, depriving corporations of citizenship and limiting cash contributions. We will have to ensure that judicial replacements are unbiased and dedicated to upholding the laws and defending the Constitution instead of reinterpreting them to meet the needs of the privileged few who can afford to buy their “justice”. We will also have to re-establish a truly independent and competitive media that is not afraid to stand up and fight for its first amendment rights.
Now the problem is, that only Congress can do these things and undo the damage done over the last 36 years. And since the current Congress won’t do these things, we stand little chance of fixing the problem this term. And since Americans re-elect the same people to Congress who have been robbing us blind year after year after year, (see Insane Voters) the prospects for the future don’t look good.