-- Financially Backing the Republican party

We tend to focus less on social issues and more on who's gettin' screwed and who's doin' the screwin'. In my opinion, Americans are not getting screwed by the Republican Party. They are getting screwed by Large Corporations that bought and own the Republican Party.

Molly Ivins http://www.creators.com/opinion_show.cfm?columnsName=miv

It's not a news flash to anyone to find out that the Republicans have more funds than the Democrats. This has always been the case, and is attributed to the Republicans being more interested in careers in business while Democrats lean more toward education and social causes, which often pay less; however, is this necessarily a true belief?

I would say that it's not. Yes, Republican candidates outspend their Democrat (and other) counterparts, but is that because Republicans have more money or because their party can raise more money? It seems to be the latter more than the former, and one of the areas where they raise much of their funds is from corporations.

This is where the Democrats can make a difference. If the companies where you do business are supporting Republicans, or supporting Republicans more than Democrats, you can do something about this. First, write to them and ask them to make their contributions more equitable. As a customer, you have the right to express your opinions. If they refuse, simply take your business elsewhere.

To find out how your companies contribute, you can start with the following site, http://www.buyblue.org/ and click on Categorized under the search window to see all of the companies listed by category. If the company you're looking for isn't listed, simply send them a letter and ask them if they support political campaigns, and if they do, what their contributions were last year (2005) for Republicans, Democrats and Others. For larger companies you can usually address their Corporate Governance Department. Otherwise, you can simply contact the president of the company.

One thing to look for is a letter back stating that the company does not make contributions, but those contributions are from the employees, and the company has no control over the way employees spend their money. This is true, however, in most cases, the "employees" that are making the contributions are executives of the company, and while it's true that employees have the right to spend their money as they see fit, it is also your right to spend your money on those companies that are not going to turn around and give it to the Republicans. If that money comes from their executives, let them know that you don't agree with that policy, and if the executives choose to support Republicans over Democrats, then you choose to support other companies. Whether they care to admit it or not, executives do represent their companies, even in their personal life.

The goal is not to remove all funding from Republican candidates, but to make it more equitable between the parties. If a company gives $10,000 to Democrats and $90,000 to Republicans, it's not reasonable to expect them to kick in an additional $80,000 in order to give each $90,000, as that would increase their total contributions from $100,000 to $180,000. It is entirely reasonable, however, to ask them to contribute $50,000 to each. This doesn't increase the company's giving at all, but it levels the playing field between the parties.