bribe verb 1. persuade (someone) to act in one's favor, typically illegally or dishonestly, by a gift of money or other inducement. I think what frustrates me most about America is that one of our biggest problems with corruption could be easily fixed. I am referring, of course, to the way in which campaign contributions have been ruled to be a form of "free speech." What this does is it adds a highly plutocratic influence into our democratic republic. An influence which causes Congress to do inane and insane things like disallow medicare from negotiating for drug prices so that the government can afford to better care for our seniors because of campaign contributions, i.e. bribes, from pharmaceutical companies. I mean, if a mobster gave a cop $100 to act favorably towards him, that would be a bribe, not free speech. If electing officials is any different, it's that the consequences are even more wide-reaching. The complication is that due to SCOTUS and their unwise precedents, it may require a constitutional amendment, but what we need is a law that makes it so that all campaign contributions must be anonymous. And so that there is no way around this, endorsements of candidates by corporations or other non-private individuals (no seriously, corporations are not individuals), should be disallowed. The last part may seem like an infringement upon first amendment rights, but rights must be weighed against each other. Our system of government is not working properly because of the abuses of corporations bribing our elected officials, so something like this really should be implemented. Thoughts?
