or how your $5 can make a difference

The short story is that it adds up. $5 from 70,000 people becomes a decent war chest of $350,000.

Representative Democracy is a system that allows voters to decide who will represent them. The principle is supposed to be one person one vote. However, it seems that it is now one dollar one vote. People with more money can afford to make more contributions and the candidate with more money can advertise and travel and hire workers and consultants to give themselves a huge advantage.

Incumbents already have obvious advantages too. First, they are already known across the district because of the last election and because while they are in office they send out updates at taxpayer expense. According to the AP via the KC Star, Jenkins spent $422,000 of your taxpayer dollars to do this, more than everyone except Dina Titus, a Democrat from Nevada.

Second, incumbents have two years to make connections with major donors and to raise funds for their re-election. Third, at a salary of $174,000 a year, incumbents make more money than most people in their district.

The trouble with voting by money is that then clearly people who have money will be represented. How can working people fight this and make this a government "of the people, by the people and for the people"?  By making small contributions. Our strength is in our numbers. We may not have the money to contribute $100 or $2,000 to a campaign, and even if we did, we would rather buy something more practical with than money, like a winter coat or a used car.

But we can spare $5 or $10, less than $1 a month, and if lots of us do it, it can add up. Right now the top earner on Act blue is Bill Halter who has raised over $600,000. That's a fair amount of money, and it came from average donations of just $32.

So gather up your loose change and make a $5 donation. You probably won't miss it, and you will have done your part to help working people against moneyed interests.