A constitutional amendment; a proposal

Submitted by persondem on Mon, 11/01/2010 - 5:44pm

Republican/conservatives like to advocate for constitutional amendments that, at best, do little to advance society and might, if passed, hurt law abiding Americans. I refer to the proposed antiflag burning amendments and DOMA type nonsense.
I would like to propose a constitutional amendment to reform our electoral process so as to be beyond the reach of the Robert's SCOTUS. I would like to see the following:

No electioneering until the year of the election. No declaring of candidacy, no fund raising. (Yes, Iowa and New Hampshire might want to make adjustmnents)

All contributions to candidates must be from individuals and max out at $1000. (this could be indexed to inflation and adjusted every 10 years)

No issue ads within 30 days of an election. (If it's really an issue ad it shouldn't need to be close to an election)

All election money raised must be spent in that election cycle or donated to a nonprofit charity (no war chests).

Candidates and organizations running issue ads must disclose their funding sources.

Anything you'd like to see added? Any glaring problems in what I have proposed? Have at it; let's make this interactive.

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Comments

Maybe something to add to the discussion

Submitted by James on Mon, 11/01/2010 - 6:15pm.

The legal and complete elimination of any role, formal or informal, of political parties in government affairs.

These are strange political times. The pundits say this election is a referendum on President Barack Obama, but that doesn’t truly capture the dynamic. More precisely, Tuesday will be a referendum on Obama’s ability to navigate partisan waters. He was elected to change the political game, and he’s found that impossible to do: The parties won’t allow it. Still, the American people, courted, ignored and manipulated by the political parties, are beginning to identify them as the problem.

Not an entirely bad idea

Submitted by persondem on Tue, 11/02/2010 - 9:56pm.

I would like to see how it plays out in the states that have enacted such policies (Like CA.) over time. Would seem a bit of a stretch to have parties banned via the constitution, even though Washington warned the nation about political parties in his farewell address.
In the absence of parties, corporate, monied interests could run wild(er).

Environmental Defense Fund

http://signon.org/sign/an-end-to-gerrymandering