I believe Bernie nailed it when he was asked if he could only focus on passing one primary issue

[Uncle Joe]

as President, he answered campaign finance reform.

That is indeed the root of all the other evils insofar as corrupting or at the very least co-opting our government from actually representing the best interests of the people whether it be health care, climate change, raising the minimum wage, drastic income disparities, government actually regulating Wall Street instead of the other way around, general corruption, the proliferation of monopolies and trusts, unfair trade agreements benefiting corporations at the expense of the people, tuition free college, strengthening social security, waging war, rational and just drug laws and I believe to some degree institutional racism is affected by this as well.

When the system is corrupt or dysfunction-ally co-opted you can't expect to get optimum results, anyone believing otherwise is not using their head.

"Build it and they will come" was a phrase repeatedly uttered in the movie "Field of Dreams" and there is some truth to that, if the politicians that write and pass our laws are primarily sustained by the beholden dollar, they will serve their master whether consciously or subconsciously.

On the other hand if the political leaders that make up "We the Peoples'" government are primarily sustained by the people, the financial weights restraining these chosen leaders from fulfilling their fiduciary responsibilities to the public will be lifted.

So the preeminent question of our times is what kind of government do we want to build one based or financed on the almighty mega-dollar or one committed to serving the best interests of the American People?

I have no doubt Bernie is committed to the latter.

[cantbeserious]

1. Know Thy Enemy - Oligarchs, Corporations, Banks And Their Media Minions And MIC Henchmen

eom

[Warren DeMontague]

2. Because the money corrupts the shit out of everything else.

Nothing else can get done, until that is fixed.

[Uncle Joe]

3. I hate making an OP and running but I'm getting sleepy.

Peace to you, Warren.

[Warren DeMontague]

4. you too.

Your point is spot on, and well taken. Not much else to add.

[Volaris]

6. Yep. Publicly-funded elections are the Keys to the Kingdom.

'Cause we dont get shit, until that gets done. WHEN that gets done, we get the Congress WE elect (not the corporations) and then if they want to get re-elected, they will start acting on our behalf.

And, for the record, make that ish a TAX (like FICA or SocSec). That way, people who dont usually vote will want thier monies worth, will start paying attention and start voting. If every 2 years, 200 million politically-educated adults showed up to the polls, do you REALLY think the idiot GOP would think obstruction as strategy would be a good idea?

Also, election day should be a National Holiday--ALL places of business (excepting emergency services) should be REQUIRED to be CLOSED, and polls should be open from midnight to midnight.

Paid lobbying should be illegal.

EVERY business licence in America should be required to come with the printed clause "I understand that corporation X is not entitled to anything that might constitute a constitutional RIGHT..instead Corporation Xs access to things like Due Process, property ownership and the ability to speak within the Commons are a PRIVLEDGES granted, and CAN be revoked. Sign it, or go get fucked--no business for you!

I want my DEMOCRACY back!

[Peace Patriot]

5. Agree!

They tried to box him in with a stupid question, even tried to tell HIM what his 3 main priorities are--said the president only gets to do one, so which one would you do first? He ignored the 3 issues and did his OWN priority: campaign finance reform as his first order of business.

I love the way he refused to get trapped in the question, and absolutely loved his answer. He is so right! Campaign finance reform is how you evict the lobbyists, how you get a good Congress, and how you get everything else done.

Campaign finance reform may take a Constitutional amendment. This is where Sanders will need 10 million people descending upon Washington in The March For Democracy. And, you know what, I think he'll get it. Maybe carrying 10 million symbolic pitchforks.

If I recall my Constitutional law (it's been a while), an amendment can be started off by Congress, then has to go to a certain number of state legislatures for ratification, and it can happen the other way around (come from a certain number of state legislatures, then to Congress). I can't remember if the President has to sign it; I presume so. One other route would be a Constitutional Convention.

All this would be needed because we have such a fascist Supreme Court (which okayed unlimited money in political campaigns, in the "Citizens United" case, and thus overturned numerous efforts to limit the money--the bastards!). Oh, and another route could be "packing the Supreme Court"--which FDR threatened over guess which New Deal program? SOCIAL SECURITY! His threat caused one justice to change his mind, and thus Social Security was saved!

Note: The Constitution does NOT specify the number of justices. 9 is not a sacred number. Congress can change that number. Thus, what FDR was threatening was to add justices to the Supreme Court to stop the Court from overturning his vitally needed New Deal programs. (The rightwing of that era called it "packing the Supreme Court"--but it's a perfectly legal and proper thing for the President to propose and for Congress to do.)

In any case, that's the obstacle to getting the mountains of dirty money out of our election system: the Supreme Court.

Ten million people. Can we do it? You bet we can!

[Ligyron]

7. Well we certainly don't want to go the Constitutional Convention route

Those RW nutbags in Congress would use that to turn this country into a Theocracy along with cancelling most of the Bill of Rights.

Everything else I totally agree with.

Bernie 2016!!

[cali]

8. You nail it here, Uncle Joe

Absolutely Bernie is spot on

[MrMickeysMom]

9. Agreed, Uncle Joe...

We have met the enemy and it is (gulp) the American citizen.

We can blame on so many of us being ill-informed or dumbed down, but let's face it. We get the campaign laws we are willing to settle for.

Ever since the Concord Coalition (Paul Tsongas days of the 92 primaries), his single most important issue was the clarion to voters to get wise.

It got so bad, we now have to turn over Citizens United.

But this is EXACTLY what she need to do to move forward on all that stuff we "can't do anything about".

Bullshit, we can't!

[Kalidurga]

10. But, if Corporations are reigned in and unable to donate mega millions to candidates...

How on earth would Hillary fund her campaign?

[reformist2]

11. The bribery of politicians by Big Money is why we never get what we want.

If we can free the politicians of having to beg billionaires for money to run for office, that would be huge. We're not going to end bribery, but we will end the era when the rich dictate who gets to run for office.

[madokie]

12. Campaign finance reform

and straighten out the mess that is our Main Stream Media. We do these or we loose, no matter who is what. If we don't have the intestinal fortitude to correct these two important issues we can't have anything else.

simple as that

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

13. As incestuous as all of our problems are, it's always a bit 'chicken and eggish' to try and find

'the root problem', and 'campaign finance reform' is about as unsexy and nerdy of an answer to that 'what one thing would you do' as you can get, but I have to agree that it's a looming issue behind getting people OUT of DC who are only in it for money and power, and getting people IN who really want to solve all the other problems.

[Uncle Joe]

14. 2:44PM CST crowd kick.