Campaign Finance Reform: A Gaia Brain Perspective

If just a few Electors change their vote to someone who most Americans trust and respect... and no one wins a majority?

A Gaia Brain perspective on campaign finance reform

Efforts to improve the system of campaign finance could be more consistent with principles of a free society if government were to give up the claim of a right to the first use of force against its citizens. The electromagnetic spectrum is public property. Rather than try to constrain voluntary behavior on the part of citizens by placing limits on contributions, government ought to collect fees for the use of the broadcast spectrum, and disburse the proceeds to all the people. If some people want to support forums that promote the public interest by encouraging debate of issues of public concern, then they could contribute a portion of their share of the proceeds from the sale of spectrum space toward sponsorship of those forums. As radio and television advertising rates increase, in response to the increased cost of access to spectrum space, advertising would become less attractive as a means of gaining votes and winning elections. Money will become less influential in campaigns, while performance in citizen-sponsored forums will become a more important factor in deciding elections.

The people could help to design the forums simply by withholding any contributions from those forums which they feel have criteria for participation which are either too restrictive or too permissive.

This change in the way we manage our spectrum resource would make broadcast ads in general less attractive as a means of achieving any change in the behavior of citizens/consumers, and it would provide each of us with new resources to invest in community or personal needs.

So many of our current problems could be reduced or eliminated if only we would give up the notion that government can legitimately initiate the use of force against its own citizens. This includes the forced taking of money that is then distributed to programs that some people may not want to support. The area of campaign finance is unique in that the public funding is entirely derived from a voluntary check-off. Unlike most government programs, no one can claim that they were compelled to support public financing of campaigns with their tax money. What if we gave people this option on all public spending? Those programs which lack popular support would simply not get funded, thus leaving more resources available for programs that do enjoy the support of the people.