Here is the most startling result of the 2012 election: Candidates for the presidency and the federal Senate and House of Representatives spent a record amount of money this election cycle -- you may want to sit down for this -- $4.2 billion and counting. According to CNN, the final total will be about $6 billion.
According to opensecrets.org, our congressman, Tom Rooney, for example, spent about $1 million in a barely contested race.
There was a lot of money spent at the state level, too.
According to the Florida Secretary of State website, between Jan. 1 and Nov. 1, 2012 Denise Grimsley spent about $660,000 in her run for the Florida Senate. Again, a barely contested election.
Crystal Drake and Cary Pigman, according to the Florida Secretary of State, spent $40,000 and $174,000, respectively, running for the Florida House of Representatives.
The amount of money spent getting elected in 2012 is beyond shocking -- it's obscene.
Just take the $6 billion spent at the federal level. Think about how many housing loans, college scholarships, and grants to small businesses could have been created with all that cash. What a colossal waste.
According to the Center for Responsive Government and the Center for Public Integrity -- brace yourself again -- between April 2012 and Nov. 1, 2012 there were 1.1 million ads that ran on T.V., most running in battleground states, as we here in Florida can attest.
Two generations ago the threat to representative government hid in smoke filled back rooms, where established local political powers manipulated the process.
Reforms begun in the 1960s, meant to bring politics out of the shadow and into the light, unfortunately created different, but equally serious problems.
Money has become the life blood of elections, but spending millions and billions of dollars to gain power can come to no good. The sums are irrational to say the least, and a danger to democracy at the worst.
Folks, we can't count on politicians themselves to change the process. It will be up to us to unite and change how we choose candidates, how we finance campaigns, and how long we allow the election cycle to last.
We also need to be sure every vote counts. Let's revisit the Electorial College. Created in the 18th Century, when the landed gentry lacked any confidence in men without property, the electoral college was invented to restrict the common man's power.
It is time to ammend the constitution on this issue and simply count the popular vote -- the candidate with the most votes wins.
Beyond big changes, there is a smaller action we must take -- being sure all the votes from soldiers, sailors, marines, airmen or coast guardsmen are counted, and counted before everyone else's -- especially from those serving in theaters of war.
Sunday, November 11, 2012 - www.newssun.com/edt-111112