I wrote this when I was still in high school and forgot about it until Eric Garland's wonderful Twitter rant yesterday (reproduced in blog form in his website).
In America politicians
create laws. Although our officials are
democratically elected, they do not necessarily represent the average
American. Political campaigns run on
dollars. It is effectively impossible to
win any significant election in this country without access to a personal
fortune, or friends with great wealth.
In our society, money is
often valued more than “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness”. People make political contributions only to
causes that they believe in strongly, or feel will help better their own lives,
often monetarily. Big business and high
rollers will not provide money to candidates who might hurt their
interests. A prospective candidate can
garner political donations by making promises to these special interests,
guaranteeing advocacy of legislation that promotes their business and thirst
for money. American politics and democracy are not about applying the will of
the people, they are about advancing the agenda of the wealthy elite who run
our society, often into the ground.
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