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The U.S. Capitol appears to be upside down.

(Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg)

By David M. Goodman

Whatever your politics – Democratic, Republican or independent – most people have at least one issue they see as most important.

For some it’s climate change. The need for national policies that align with global realities in areas such as rising sea levels and the melting Arctic ice cap is paramount. Do we seek, as a nation, remedies to include a carbon tax?

Others want action on income inequality. The disparity between the top 1 percent and everyone else is growing and mind-numbing. If income redistribution is unacceptable, what policies do we pursue as a nation to ameliorate this widening gap, to get an economy going again for a besieged middle class, and to restore hope for the chronically unemployed and underemployed? Do we need greater regulation of financial markets – or less?

Still others insist that our top priority is immigration, health care or the rights of the unborn. Each is an issue that burns brightly and evokes great passion.

Then, there are many for whom government has simply become too big and too intrusive, jeopardizing our freedom and liberties as Americans. They call for smaller government and the systematic defunding of programs and social entitlements.

All of these issues – and many others – are of greatest importance and deserve fair and open debate. None is receiving it. The system is broken. The dysfunction and gridlock played out in the Congress reflect a yawning partisan divide within the U.S., or so the story goes. While few would deny this perception, the fuel driving this partisanship is less obvious: Big Money is distorting the operation of government and corrupting our representative democracy.

We cannot expect any action on the issues important to us, pro or con, until we end the corruption. That is the first problem.

This corruption is deep and pernicious. It is not the corruption of people in dark alleys with suitcases full of cash. It is a corruption resulting from a concentration of wealth and the power and influence this exerts over our government and politics. As James Madison warned in The Federalist Papers, this corruption threatens our representative government. Today, many members of the House and Senate spend more time meeting with lobbyists and special interest groups and fundraising for their next campaign than they do on legislation and representing the broad electorate that sent them to Washington, D.C.

How do we stop the avalanche of cash and corruption of government? Some favor a constitutional amendment to restore balance and rein in the excesses that are a consequence of the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision on campaign spending. This is worthy but, realistically, amending the Constitution is difficult. The founders meant it to be so. An amendment requires the approval of three-quarters of the states and two-thirds of both houses of Congress. This makes it a long process too, possibly stretching over a decade. The recent history of amendments such as the Equal Rights Amendment, which floundered over time and eventually died, is not encouraging. Do we have that kind of time to root out the causes of corruption?

Another approach is to pass a law so carefully designed and vetted that it removes the cancer of the money flow without violating the Supreme Court’s test of free speech. It is a law that wells up from grassroots action throughout the United States, where eventually millions of ordinary citizens will demand that Congress pass it. Such a campaign has been launched nationally by a nonpartisan group, Represent.Us. The law its citizen volunteers support is the American Anti-Corruption Act.

Here is what the AACA would do:

1) Prohibit members of Congress from soliciting or receiving contributions from the interests they regulate, as well as fundraising during congressional working hours;

2) Limit super PAC contributions and coordination with political campaigns and political parties;

3) Expand the legal definition of lobbyists to prevent anyone from trying to influence our lawmakers from skirting the rules;

4) Close the "revolving door" through which elected representatives and their staff sell off their legislative power in exchange for high-paying jobs when they leave office;

5) Limit the amount that lobbyists and their clients can contribute to federal candidates, political parties and political committees to $500 per year;

6) Mandate full transparency of $10,000 or more on political advertising to be disclosed to the Federal Election Commission;

7) Require federal candidates to disclose the names of individuals who gather together multiple contributions for the member or candidate;

8) Build voter influence by creating a biennial $100 tax rebate that registered voters may contribute to federal candidates, political parties and political committees; and

9) Strengthen the Federal Election Commission's independence and the House and Senate ethics enforcement processes.

For full provisions of the AACA, I encourage voters to go to (anticorruptionact.org) and consider supporting it by becoming a citizen co-sponsor.

David M. Goodman, Ph.D., has worked for government and nonprofits in Trenton, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C. He is a team leader for the New Jersey Congressional District 12 committee of Represent.Us.

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