Jerry Nadler: “Big money is a cancer on our political system that must be removed or we risk devolving into an oligarchy like so many…”

“Big money is a cancer on our political system that must be removed or we risk devolving into an oligarchy like so many other republics before us. It is the constant money chase and submission to the special interests that corrupts our system and makes our constituents lose faith in their government. It's why there is such disinterest in politics back home and such low voter turnout. Our constituents don't think we care about them. They think we only care about raising money. They believe that their participation, their voices, cannot count against the power of big money, and recent experience says they are right. Once upon a time, when someone wanted to run for office, the first question we used to ask was what kind of political support can you generate. Now the first question we ask is how much money can you raise. Better yet, we find a rich candidate who'll finance his or her own campaign. It's impossible to run on good ideas alone anymore, you need millions of dollars to go with them. With this system we risk electing candidates less attuned to their communities than to their big contributors. This is not a perfect bill, but it is a good first step. If we do not take this 1st step today, the history books may eventually say that like the Roman Republic, the United States had a good 200 to 250-year run at democracy, and then it degenerated into an oligarchy like all the rest. Don't let that happen.”