Letter: Anti-Corruption Act needed to improve our government

From: Ethan Hoerr

Columbus

With another midterm election cycle behind us, there’s satisfaction in knowing that our votes were counted and our voices were heard. The question now becomes how we can make our voices heard for the next two years until the next major election cycle. As good as it feels to vote, that one day of civic participation often feels outweighed when two years of indifferent or self-serving agendas by elected officials go by until the next round of political ads start up again. There’s a bill designed to change that. 

The American Anti-Corruption Act works to end political corruption by ending political bribery, barring secret money, making voting easier and more accessible, and enforcing the rules. Although the preferred term is “lobbying,” the way it works in practice heavily resembles bribery. Lobbyists speak directly to politicians and offer large sums of money or post-term lobbyist job offers under the condition that he or she passes laws favorable to the special interest the lobbyist represents. 

Similarly, “secret money” refers to money collected or spent that is either never reported or is done anonymously. The Anti-Corruption Act bars this kind of activity by prohibiting lobbyists from presenting gifts, not allowing politicians to do any fundraising during the workday, and revising disclosure laws to ensure that fundraising, spending, and donors funding the purchase of political ads are immediately reported online. The ACA also would give all Americans the choice to vote absentee, automatically register interested eligible voters, and let them choose the winner of primary elections. 

It would also make more systemic reforms such as ending gerrymandering by creating independent, transparent redistricting commissions, and proposing a term limit of 18 years at all levels of government to prevent career politicians. 

Since a bill only counts if it’s passed, there is a way to ensure that it does go through, even if Congress doesn’t want to play along. Even disregarding the many challenges present in getting both chambers of Congress to vote in favor of a bill intended to cut off campaign contributions from wealthy donors, it’s highly likely that both parties will purposely add loopholes to exploit later on. That way, they can publicly brag about passing an anti-corruption law after privately removing all the bill’s teeth. The best avenue to getting this act passed into law in its intended form is to introduce it more locally at the city, state, and municipal levels. A small handful of citizens in Tallahassee, 

Florida were able to pass the first anti-corruption act in US history back in 2014 by creating an initiative that put the reforms they wanted on a local ballot directly without having to haggle with local officials. This allowed the public to turn out to vote on the referendum and pass it in one fell swoop. 

By passing these measures through local initiatives to beat lobbying, secret money, gerrymandering, and voter suppression, this act provides a way for us to bring back power to the people.