It seems like in the last 20 years the powers of the Judiciary Branch and Congress have become side-swept by the Executive branch. But the one major power vested to the people- the power to vote- has really taken a beating..

One big reason is the insane amount of money flowing into our political campaigns. But maybe you like getting all of those redundant fliers on your front porch. And if you do, then read no further and enjoy the fire-starters.

House Candidates raised an average of $1.7 million per campaign in the last cycle. Amazingly, the Senate spent an average of $10.5 million dollars per campaign. The one singular Senate seat for Montana in 2025 shattered records with over $255 million dollars spent in total - that is enough to buy groceries for 2 months for each Montanan and several cows.

The rest of the world looks at this in horror - because they think this money means bribery.

And they are not wrong! The average net worth of a Senator currently is 2.4 million. That is probably more than all of us in total who are working on Mainstreet. In fact that is 25 times the average net worth of Americans. They do not frequent our shops. They do not live in our neighborhoods. They probably do not understand our needs.

Maybe it is bribery….. The money flowing into these campaigns are hugely unregulated with untraceable dark money which comes from who knows where. The rest of the funds come from corporations and wealthy super-PACS, advocating their agendas.

Each year the capital needed to fund these campaigns ratchets higher - making these influential entities’ contributions even more essential to the success of their campaigns. The financially well off who agree with their agendas are increasingly hand picked for the elections. We can see now that when it comes to voting or creating legislation, loyalty to a specific powerful individual or corporation supersedes any of our needs on Mainstreet.

In a newer turnabout, the money needed to fund campaigns are increasingly funneled through Republican and Democratic election committees which are in turn, controlled by an elite group to ensure only certain candidates with their viewpoints can be elected. This makes them powerbrokers - regulating bills and suppressing open discussion and free speech within the government.

Yep, our government is not functioning like it should.

Our forefathers engineered this republic so Congress would represent us as voters. -Not international corporations. -Not unknown actors funding Dark Money. -Not the mega-wealthy. -Not the international corporations - Not the committee powerbrokers.

It is time for reform. The Democrats are as guilty as the Republicans It’s time to shake things up with a third party. Let’s build it.