That’s something of a novel concept these days, isn’t it? By, for, and of the people. Kinda stands in contrast to the system we’ve got now, which seems to be government by the lobbyists, for the corporate special interests backing them, and of an entrenched Washington elite that recent history has shown to be catastrophically arrogant and out-of-touch. And the people? Who needs ‘em?

Fortunately, it doesn’t have to be this way. And (my personal favorite) presidential candidate John Edwards has a plan to help fix it - one that I think ought to be of major interest to all progressive Democrats, regardless of who they’re currently supporting or not supporting. His plan has three main parts:

1), Reforming campaign finance to return power to the people. His plan would “create a new Grassroots Presidential Financing System to match small donations under $100 by eight to one, making two $100 donations as valuable to a campaign as a single $1,000 donation”. Can you imagine the difference that would make in presidential fundraising? With this, a few working- or middle-class Joes or Janes could have the same influence on a campaign’s ability to compete as the very fattest of fat-cats. If you don’t think that’d make an impact on the way this country’s run, you haven’t been paying attention. And the other parts of this would be a big help as well - lowering the maximum personal contribution to $1,000 (from the current $2,300), and “creat[ing] a system of full public financing for Congressional candidates and requir[ing] corporations to disclose their political activity and spending”.

2), Cracking down on the legalized bribery that is our current lobbying system. This part of the plan is packed so full of good stuff that I just have to quote the whole thing:

John Edwards will prohibit all candidates and federal office holders from accepting contributions from lobbyists and will prohibit federal lobbyists from acting as fundraisers or bundlers for federal candidates. He will limit the ability of lobbyists to secure lucrative earmarks by enacting a Constitutional version of the line-item veto, where the president can require an up or down vote on special-interest spending. John will close the revolving door between Capitol Hill and K Street by reinstating the five-year ban on lobbying by former top government officials and by banning former lobbyists from taking executive branch positions related to their former clients. Finally, he will curb lobbyists’ influence by increasing disclosure requirements for lobbyist activity and by prohibiting government executives from accepting gifts and travel from lobbyists and their employers.

In other words - K-Street Project, goodbye forever. And good riddance, too.

3), Strengthening the voice of ordinary people in our political system. There’s a ton of good stuff here, too - let me quote another chunk:

John Edwards will require that all voting machines, including electronic ones, use paper ballots that can be verified by voters. He will also give D.C. residents voting representation in Congress, allow Election Day Registration in federal elections, fight voter suppression and intimidation and end the disenfranchisement of former prisoners who have served their time.

These are all big deals. Every one of the things mentioned here is something that disenfranchises poor and minority citizens to a grossly disproportionate degree. Even beyond the obvious clean-elections dividends, these proposals would go a long way towards ironing out the remaining racial and economic discrimination in our electoral system, and that’s something that I think is more than a little important.
There’s also another segment to this section that I think is really exciting. John Edwards’ plan would also “ask one million citizens to participate in biennial Citizen Congresses - national town hall meetings where regular Americans tackle national issues together, without the filters of interest groups and the media”. This is huge. One of the biggest obstacles to progressive change is the way that the views and interests of ordinary Americans, which tend to be much more in line with progressivism than people typically realize, get filtered through a tiny elite of media industry moguls and personalities, whose presentations often cater much more to the corporations they either own or work for than to the public they’re supposedly charged with informing. This would provide a way to blast through that, and make the voice of ordinary people heard, without elite filters. This is something I’d love to see happen, and to participate in myself if I ever get a chance.

So, yeah. That’s why I think John Edwards’ plan on this is totally awesome, and (in my opinion) really sets the gold standard on this for the other candidates. It’ll be interesting if the other candidates step up to the plate on this, especially given that some of them (Hillary Clinton, in particular) themselves have longstanding ties to lobbyists.