What’s broken in American politics.

Problem 1

Money is drowning out your vote

This country was built on one person, one vote. Even when that only meant white men who owned property, the idea was that each voice counted once. Big money breaks that. It turns one person’s voice into millions: a megaphone that drowns everyone else out, pays celebrities and trusted faces to tell people what to think, and spreads lies faster than the truth can catch up.

This isn’t about free speech. I believe in free speech, a free press, and people spending their money however they want, as long as it doesn’t hurt anyone else. If someone used a megaphone to share true, balanced information, I’d have no problem with it. But people want to win, so they use money to amplify what they already believe, often with lies, and call it freedom of expression. That’s manipulation, and manipulation isn’t freedom.

Look at who’s paying. The five biggest super PACs raised about $1.83 billion this cycle, and roughly 85% of it came from 291 donors who each gave $1 million or more. One person can give hundreds of millions to swing the whole country toward what they believe, while most of us get one vote.

That flood of money traces back to Citizens United. In 2010 the Supreme Court ruled that government can’t limit independent election spending by corporations and unions, and super PACs grew out of it. I think it’s one of the biggest problems in this country, and it has to go.

Then there’s lobbying. Companies, unions and advocacy groups pay professional lobbyists, gifts and trips to bend the rules their way. Foreign money in our elections is already illegal, yet foreign governments and companies can still legally hire lobbyists in Washington. And groups built to advocate for one foreign country spend tens of millions on our races. AIPAC, the pro-Israel lobby, is the biggest example; its money comes from American donors, but its whole purpose is another country’s interests.

And when someone pays to spread an obvious lie to sway an election, there’s almost no price to pay. They’re deciding other people’s futures, and their children’s futures, with lies.

Problem 2

Politicians we can’t hold accountable

Politicians should be held to a higher standard than the rest of us. Right now it’s so hard to impeach and convict them that they can get away with almost anything. Even bitter enemies almost never convict each other, because nobody wants the tables turned on them next time.

There are no term limits for Congress, so a seat can become a lifetime career. Members of Congress earn $174,000 a year and qualify for a federal pension after five years, and when they leave, the door to lobbying their old colleagues is wide open. Too many of our top leaders are lawyers, a club trained to write the law and work it in its own favor.

Judges have the same problem. Federal judges and Supreme Court justices serve for life, and a corrupt one is almost impossible to remove. Lawyers move between private practice and the bench, then hear the same kinds of cases they used to argue for paying clients.

Worst of all, there’s no easy way for you to see how your own representatives actually vote, and how those votes line up with what you believe. So most people just keep voting for the same party.

Problem 3

A voting system that keeps people out

We’re a melting pot of religions and no religion, ethnicities, genders and a lot of other differences. We should be able to come together as people who believe in freedom, integrity and a land of opportunity: to be who you want to be, for your kids to do better, and to spread freedom to the world without living in fear. The way we vote works against that.

Our system funnels everything into two parties. Voting is a hassle, so a lot of people don’t. We vote on very little, once every year or two. Once someone is elected, they keep the seat for the whole term no matter what they do, unless they’re impeached. And gerrymandering lets politicians draw their own districts, so they pick their voters instead of voters picking them. Along with campaign money, it takes power away from the people.

Problem 4

No equal justice

There’s no justice anymore. At least that’s how it feels to a lot of people, and in a lot of cases it’s true. If you’re rich, there’s no accountability.

The Epstein files are the clearest example. At first I thought it was overblown. But the long fight over releasing them, and what has come out, point to powerful people in both parties being protected. Rich people shouldn’t get a pass. They have the means to hide, stall and buy their way out, and when they use them, we let it slide.

It isn’t only the rich. Every day people speed, run red lights and roll through stop signs as if the rules don’t apply to them. When people see the powerful get away with anything, they think: if they can do it, I can do it. And the rules aren’t enforced equally. In rural Ohio, a white guy who breaks a traffic rule probably gets away with it, while a minority driver probably gets the ticket. A first DUI with a good enough lawyer probably gets reduced or dropped, while someone who can’t pay gets the DUI.

That’s the heart of it. People only follow the rules when they believe the system is fair. When they don’t, you get anger, a sense that nothing matters, and people who stop voting. I don’t want a police state, which is just as bad as no justice. I want rules that apply to everyone the same way.

Problem 5

Wealth that runs away from everyone else

The people at the top, or the ones who figured out how to work the system, made themselves far wealthier through lobbying, revolving doors, favors and money in politics. Getting government to set the rules in their favor was the best investment of the last 20 years. Now their fortunes keep growing faster and faster, because nothing balances the scales back.

Raising income taxes alone won’t fix it, because most of their money is wealth, not income. Inequality is the gasoline in this engine: it fuels the unfairness, the broken justice and the bought politics above.

This isn’t communism. I want a more merit-based capitalism, where you can still get rich by building something. Some people did this legally, and I don’t want to jail anyone for using the system as it was. But what happened needs correcting.