Answers: Campaign Betterment

In many ways candidates and campaigns are more accessible than ever, but the abundance of events and information can also be overwhelming. How would you improve the campaign process?

FROM OUR INBOX

Candidates should be placed on an even playing field by allowing them $10,000 each to run for an office. Candidates should not be allowed to say anything negative about their opponent. They should only be allowed to state what they are going to do to make this country, city or county better.

Anna H.

Cedar Rapids

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The process won't be improved until we demand big money is out.

Although it won't be an easy task, We need to elect individuals who will pass laws to cancel out the U.S. Supreme Court's Citizens United ruling. Corporations are not people; and our political process is not made better by pretending they are.

Gary L.

Iowa City

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There should be a time limit on advertising disbursements by outside parties. For instance, they should be limited to the first two weeks in October. Let them spend as much money as they want during that window, while the public knows to tune out the negativity.

David K.

Coralville

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If we can limit outside spending and a system where money equals power, we can truly create an opportunity for candidates with great ideas to prosper.

With this, I am a believer in term limits and giving opportunities for others to lead. If you don't subscribe to the paper, have a TV, belong to the chamber, or have Internet, how are you able to become educated on the issues and candidates?

Newspaper editorial board meetings should be open to public input and required for candidates to attend.

Joshua L.

Dubuque

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A few years ago it would have been simple to deal with the overload of information that we get before each election. We could ask a few journalists to gather the facts, check the facts, and get the information to us. That worked out well when we had only three television networks bringing us the news. But these days, we are not only overloaded with information, we are overloaded with journalists.

We have reached the point in history where one thing can lead to campaign betterment. Voters need to use the processes of critical thinking and evaluation. Our history of being spoon fed the ‘truth' by trusted news sources, or politicians, has made us dependent on something that is no longer reliable.

The road back to a functioning democracy is going to be a hard and difficult path. In an era where we have information overload, and while some futurists are blissfully claiming that we are approaching a new era where technology surpasses human thinking, The Singularity, I believe we have no real option but to improve critical thinking skills.

This is the first year I became convinced there was a real conspiracy going on in American politics.

When five activist judges on the Supreme Court decided to unleash millions of dollars to distort the outcome of our free and fair elections, I became certain this is part of conspiracy. I don't believe that our constitution holds that money and speech are the same thing and both must be given full protection to keep our democracy functioning. I believe sitting justices on the Supreme Court conspired to make it easier to elect the kind of people they wanted in government.

They made it possible for millions of anonymously sourced dollars to influence and destroy the American political system. They knew that one of the consequences of this money was going to be information overload and that the result would be that some people would be so discouraged that they wouldn't even vote and others so uncertain about what is true, that they could be herded like animals to support their future leaders.

Many in this country worry about the efforts to suppress voter turnout. The Supreme Court went farther and suppressed the ability of the voter to think about what is important when the ballot is cast.

Gary W.

Cedar Rapids

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FROM FACEBOOK

' Darcy T.:

Limit corporate donations.

' Monte H.:

Maybe someday we'll have a 'free press,” where 'journalists” ask tough questions and hold politicians from all parties accountable. That would be better.