Special interest money is concerning

I read with interest the story in Monday’s edition entitled “Special interests donating millions.” And though this is not new or surprising, it is still very dismaying. We have a lot of problems in our country and the world. But whether Democrats or Republicans are in power, little gets done to make the average American’s life better. This is due to the influence of wealthy special interests.

And though many of us agree that a lot needs fixing, we disagree on what those things are. Much of this, it seems, is the result of those spending money to keep us distracted and divided so they can advance their own interests.

Since Citizens Untied, money has poured into our political system. But even before that, special interests vied for political influence, and the Supreme Court ruling made things much worse. I always thought that the purpose of a democratic republic was to give the people the means to stand up to power. Yet today, I see large corporate interests and very wealthy billionaires wreaking havoc with our country, leaving the interests of the middle and lower economic classes in their wake. Education and science are being attacked, social norms and civility seem to be a thing of the past, and our standing in the world is weakened.

I know we have many problems, and we cannot solve them all at once with the wave of a wand or even by putting a party more responsive to our needs in power until we fix the underlying problem.

I think it would take a constitutional amendment, but I believe only individual citizens should be able to contribute to a political campaign and that amount should be limited to one or two thousand dollars. The government could then supplement campaigns equally.

Gregory Weimer, Wheaton