I have confidence in the wisdom of the People. They know best what is good for them, and they will eventually use political action, through the vote, to direct the nation in the way it must go.

But in order to accomplish this, political activity must come from free and honest debate and compromise, moderated by a strong constitution, REAL free enterprise, and representative government. As long as power centers and special interests can influence the political process and the public dialogue with money, we will not have freedom. And with our current system of campaign funding freedom is not only no longer possible, it is becoming more remote every day. Of course, those who have money, or have been conned into thinking someday they will have lots of it (if it just weren't for those damned Liberals), are not very likely to agree with me.

Let me repeat that, in a different way, for emphasis. As long as it is possible to mold public opinion and the political process by spending large amounts of money, only people and institutions with money will have a voice in government, and it is obvious that they will arrange things for their benefit, not ours. And if through greed and arrogance they screw everything up, they will make sure they are the last to suffer. Its as if the Titanic's First Class passengers felt they were entitled to concierge seating in the lifeboats, because, after all, they had earned it.

This has always been the case, to some extent, but the situation had been steadily improving since the early 20th century, mostly due to the efforts of Theodore and Franklin Roosevelt. But for the last forty years or so, the forces of reaction and power have been trying to push the clock back to a world and time in which their power and authority was supreme.

The "first step" should be to eliminate, or at least reduce, the role of campaign contributions to our political process. If we don't do this, and soon, America will become a playground for people with money, and the corporations they represent. The rest of us will just do the work and pay the bills--if we're lucky enough to have a job at all.