Politics is Just Real-Life Monopoly for the Wealthy

Gone are the days when individuals like Alexander Hamilton and Benjamin Franklin, both Founding Fathers who rose to the highest station in colonial America, could work their way up the political ladder using pure intellect and talent. Today, in order to become an elected official, you must have money. And lots of it. If you don’t have it, it doesn’t matter how well-intentioned you are; you aren’t even able to get your little tin shoe past Go.

When I decided to run for the Riverside County Board of Supervisors, I needed to pay the filing fee to draw a special set of documents. It was about five pages’ worth of documents, and those five pages cost me over $1700. If I had not had a substantial savings, I would have already been locked out of the game.

After that, if I had wanted to get a written statement included in the official county mailer for Election Day, I would have needed to shell out an additional $2000- for a paragraph. This was one game I was locked out of- I didn’t have the money to pay for a statement, thereby giving the other candidates who did a competitive edge. Their public service could apparently be bought for several thousands of dollars. This was just the beginning of my journey through the world of wealthy players that we call “politics”.

Let me be clear: nearly every elected official is implicated in this pyramid scheme. It starts as soon as they are sworn into office. They start fundraising a few months after they sit in their cushy new chairs (paid for by We The People) the first time. They are pumping their donor networks for money for hours every day, working them over like used car salesmen desperately trying to get the lemon off the lot. The excessive amount of money in politics knows no political allegiance or boundary. It is omnipresent.

What makes this process morally repugnant is that we are not talking about people like Wall Street traders who make their living off trading abstractions like stocks and bonds- the job of a public servant is to serve the public. These people, however, seemingly only care about serving their donors; they move game pieces around the chessboard of their district like it’s nothing. Build a condo here to make XYZ Developer happy, toss a multiplex there because ABC Consultants donated to their reelection. Incumbents making over $153,000 a year in a county where the median income is barely $60,000 have no idea what life is like for the middle class, and they couldn’t fathom what it means to be poor in America today. They are simply playing the game, but the game deals with actual human lives. And they just.don't.care.

The careless and cavalier attitude I’ve seen from most elected officials since I began this race has been astonishing. They live behind a veneer, a mask, that most of us people without means never get to see. If you think that any of them actually care about you, I’d challenge you to reassess that idea; from what I’ve seen, they couldn’t care less. Some of them won’t meet with anyone unless they donate to their campaigns. Some will let calls from constituents bounce from staffer to staffer for months on end, while they entertain a meeting with a big-money interest within days of getting a meeting request. The worst is the incumbent who shills for their donors, finding excuses to build taxpayer-funded buildings on developments owned by friendly campaign contributors, and making sure that donors have added perks like a dedicated county sheriff to patrol their business properties. It is absolutely sickening how much of an influence money has on our elected officials.

Why is this a problem? Well, America was founded as a meritocracy, not as an oligarchy or aristocracy. It should not matter how much money you have; if you have the drive and the dream, all Americans should be able to accomplish their goals, especially something as noble as public service. Right?

Wrong. These days if your dream to to help your neighbors enjoy a better quality of life and want to run for office to make that happen all the drive in the world isn’t going to get you in the game. You need some Benjamin Franklins (which is ironic considering he came from a life of poverty and now his face graces the $100 bill).

And there’s no such thing as passing Go and getting $200 in the real world. In this Monopoly game, while you struggle to get around the board to make your life better, the incumbency buys both Boardwalk and Park Place, charges you a special assessment tax to build condos on the lots, gives the condo contract to the developers who held a pricey fundraiser for their reelection bids, and repossesses your little tin shoe- all in the same roll of the dice.