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Money, Media, and Politics

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Summary

Together, money and the media means propaganda--and that's what controls the political process at this time.
250 words

I just gave this reply to a comment made by Bill Harding, in response to a post I made at Democrats.com.
He made a good point that I expanded on a bit further...

Bill Harding is 100% correct when he opines that money translates into propaganda:

• A huge amount of money goes into finding out what sounds good to the electorate--regardless
  of what the actual intent and purpose of the proposals are.
  
• Another huge chunk of change goes into creating the kind of polished materials that deliver the
  visceral, emotional appeals in a way that is truely effective.
  
• Even more money goes into running ads, printing brochures, distributing things, and paying people
  to run "surveys" that are thinly-disguised sales job.

The cost goes even higher when broadcast airwaves --which are "licensed" to giant conglomorates for
free--become more expensive at election time. In other words, we give the airwaves to those corporations "because they'll use them in the public interest". But they then effectively extort massive sums of money
from anyone who wants to participate in the election process (except for Arizona, where they put a stop
to that kind of thing).

In short, money, the media, and propaganda all work together at the present time to determine the
outcome of elections. But if we can provide another avenue of information that people can use to get
advice they trust, we can make that entire process irrelevant to election results.

When we do that, we'll have made corporate money irrelevant to politics, and we'll have put a thoughtful
democracy in the hands of its citizens.

About Citizens' Advisory

Corporate money has hijacked the ballot box. The Citizens' Advisory aims to take it back. Our goal is to put people in charge of the political process. The voting-advice system recommended by the Citizens Advisory lets people choose advisors they trust. Done right, that system will enable multi-party coalitions in cyberspace. The system appeals to voters because it's convenient. It appeals to social activists and their organizations because it levels the political playing the field and empowers them with a stronger political voice.