Politics needs some changes in 2015

An increasing amount of money is thrown into politics each year, each election. It’s come to the point where people should be questioning where politicians’ alliance lies. Is it with the people who elected them to represent them and their interests, or the corporations and organizations who fund their campaigns?

According to an Associated Press article, “Democrats are best at tapping rich for political cash” among the top 100 individual donors to political groups, more than half gave primarily to Democrats or their allies. Among groups that funneled more than $100,000 to allies, the first 13 groups leaned Democrat. Big money from corporations does not represent the people that elected officials claim they serve.

It’s the time of the year where everyone is making resolutions and changes for the next 364 days. Here are some resolutions we would like to see politicians pledge to follow in 2015.

First, we would like to see more transparency in politicians. During the campaign season, we see advertisements — from both Democrats and Republicans — that endorse candidates for the position they are running for. A lot of these messages will focus on the candidate’s past accomplishments in and out of office. Although bringing up a person’s past gives the public some information, a candidate should explain their hopes and goals for their term in office.

Not many people are informed — or care about — the different political issues, and will vote for a person because they know that individual’s name, party, or they won’t vote because they think their ballot does not matter. Elected officials should focus on the public and explain why each ballot matters as opposed to listening to corporations that contribute dollars to their campaigns funds.

Elected officials should be more accessible and be themselves when they are in the public eye rather than hiding behind a political persona.

During election season they will talk about how they are “for the people” and will engage citizens that live in their jurisdiction. Once elections are over, these officials tend to have less interaction with the public unless it’s for a scheduled forum that focuses on an issue they support.

Some politicians hide behind a persona because they are afraid they will make a mistake when they are out in the open. During a public debate or Q-and-A session, they will stick to specific talking points. If an audience member asks a question that deviates from any of the talking points, the politician will answer while trying to direct the conversation back to what they know.

Politicians should prepare for — and in some cases — welcome questions, comments and suggestions from the public that are off-script.

Being transparent also means going against the majority of your own party. An elected official might have different views from most of their fellow party members but they wear their political group on their sleeve and are afraid to speak up.

Less crticizing of opponents is another change we’d like to see in politics. The endorsed messages talk about how great a candidate is, but also criticizes their opponent(s) on how they voted on past issues.

This kind of criticizing goes beyond those 1-2 minute messages.

During a forum, a politician will say or do something they normally would not and one or more audience members record it on audio or video and upload it to the Internet. That elected official’s opponents — or a media outlet that supports the other party — will take that piece of footage and produce an out of context sound byte or video.

Voters, especially those who disagree with the politician or the person’s affiliated party will believe the footage as truth rather than view it as a slip-up. Rather than taking every moment to tear their opponents apart, both parties should focus more on fixing current problems.

A third change we would like to see in both parties is be more willing to work as a team to help solve problems.

There are Democrats and Republicans who want to work together but there also extremists on both sides of the spectrum, who want to both parties separated. Both parties can accomplish more if they set aside their differences and focus on improving the country for its people.

Sure this all might sound like a pie in the sky fantasy, but isn’t that what most resolutions are anyway?