The exchange of political views shared by writers to The Courier-Herald is very interesting, but the strong opinions expressed imply that we have lost our ability to try to understand another’s point of view on many issues. This does not bode well for the future of our country. Our nation could only have been created by the willingness of a deeply divided populace to overcome prejudices and varying loyalties to find the meeting of minds that could fully support our Constitution. A Constitution that provides for the health and welfare of all of our citizens.

I suspect, however, that there is one political issue that most of us will agree upon – the loss of our democracy and the loss of the power of our individual vote by the wholesale purchase of our entire government by wealthy corporate interests. The media, to our helpless frustration, reminds us almost daily that our elected politicians have been enslaved by the millions of dollars required to run a campaign and to stay in office. With every election cycle the costs escalate. Corporate lobbyists make it clear to our elected representatives that, if they won’t play along, those millions will go to their opponents. Our Supreme Court recently reaffirmed that our corporate “citizens” can spend unlimited amounts of money to ensure that the first priority of our government is the perpetuation of corporate welfare.

How, then, can we citizens ever wrest control of our country from corporate interests? There seems to be only one way. We must come together as a nation and pledge that we will only vote for candidates who will never accept more that $100 from any individual, corporation, political action committee or any entity whatsoever. Incumbents, who have already amassed large campaign war chests, must abide by the same rule and must donate these accumulated millions to the Treasury Department to help pay down the national debt. Let’s all join “The Hundred Dollar Club.”

If we cannot all agree to this simple rule, nothing will change and our vote will continue to only be symbolic. Perhaps we should call it the “My America” rule.

Dick Hughes

Enumclaw