Chapter 10 Ninety Granny's Long March

The sensational US general election has come to an end.From the beginning of the campaign to the conclusion of the election, it is a long way to attract the attention of the public.Just before the campaign begins, another long election-related road trip is taking place in the United States.The eyes of many American people follow a journey without noise and cheers, and follow a special trekker who is stubbornly marching on a lonely journey.She is a woman, a grandmother.Incredibly she was ninety years old and her name was Doris Handock. The US is roughly the size of China.In terms of geographical shape, the United States is a "horizontal" country in the shape of a sea crab, with the Pacific Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean at its east and west ends.Therefore, the distance from the ocean to the ocean is very long.The old lady chose such a long-distance route, from California on the Pacific Ocean to Washington, the capital of the Atlantic Ocean, a total of 5,100 kilometers, as her publicity route calling for "reform of campaign funding" on foot.

What are the reforms Mrs. Doris is calling for?She called on everyone to pay attention to the rising campaign expenses in the US general election, and she asked Congress to legislate against "soft money" in the campaign process. In the early days of the United States, there was hardly any campaign finance to speak of.The United States was poor when it was first established. Compared with Europe, the candidates were quite ordinary, and the conditions for them to make speeches were also very simple.Of course, there are always some people who come to help. After a while, the candidates pay for some beer, syrup water, etc., to repay everyone's hard work.When we look back on such years, we can of course praise the integrity of politics, but we must see that under such conditions, it is difficult for the political views of the candidates to be well-known and deeply rooted in the hearts of the people.The indirect result is to affect the quality of the election itself.Just imagine, if you can't even clearly understand what a candidate's political views are, how can voters cast a meaningful vote?

Therefore, with the development of the times, candidates must go out to travel and give speeches, to appear on radio and television stations, and to contact voters. This is bound to happen.And it all costs money, and that's campaign financing for the modern operation. Maybe you can ask, why don't American candidates use the country's newspapers, radio, television and other propaganda media to publicize their campaign platform?Wouldn't this save money?The problem is, there is no such media in the United States that is controlled by a national government agency.In order to ensure that the government does not manipulate the news and do not dominate propaganda, they prohibit government agencies from interfering with the media.It is illegal for government agencies to endorse a particular candidate.It is even illegal to walk into the offices of government agencies and solicit campaign funds from private individuals inside.Americans believe that this is a prerequisite for the election to get rid of being manipulated by power.And all radio and television stations are privately owned, and candidates must pay for their airtime.

So, just donate.But after more than two hundred years, campaign expenses have naturally increased.Based on this situation, the U.S. Congress began to pass a series of laws related to the limitation of campaign funds, and established the "Federal Election Commission" to supervise and repair loopholes year by year.For example, it is stipulated that for election campaigns, individuals can no longer donate more than one thousand dollars to candidates, and no more than five thousand dollars to political parties. But there is still a loophole, that is, the current US law, for ordinary donations from companies to political parties, that is, donations that cannot be used for campaigns, the so-called "soft money", there is no upper limit on donations.Campaign funds are a very complex combination of expenses, so all political parties will try their best to reimburse some actual campaign expenses in "soft money".In this way, "soft money" has become a "loophole" for controlling campaign funds.

Ninety-year-old Mrs. Doris lives in Dublin, New Hampshire. Over the years, she and eighteen other women formed a small society. They meet once a week to discuss world affairs.As the general election is approaching, they talked about the negative role of "soft money" in the election, and believed that the growth of "soft money" implied the danger of large consortiums influencing the election.However, the old ladies are soft-spoken, how to express their reform opinions and pass them on?Mrs. Doris said, let's take an action of "walking across the United States alone", reminding Americans to put pressure on Congress to fix legal loopholes.The family members of Mrs. Tao were worried about her and expressed their opposition, but all 18 ladies applauded unanimously.In this way, Mrs. Tao set off.

Mrs. Tao started to set off from California on the west coast in January 1999. She walked about 16 kilometers every day, heading towards the capital Washington.Already hunched over at ninety, she walks along the road in a striking vest and carries a small flag.Granny Tao's "walking political expression" spread through television and the Internet, and she became a celebrity.Passing cars would honk their horns and wave to her.In the towns and villages she passed, she gave speeches advocating her reforms and voiced her views to many politicians.The way people support her is often to accompany the old lady for a while.And so she went, for over a year, across a dozen states, and once spent days in the hospital because of dehydration while crossing the desert.She never gave up, and finally managed to walk to Washington, the capital of the east coast.

When she arrived at the destination, all the reporters and the crowd who welcomed her were moved by the tenacity of the ninety-year-old lady who persisted in her political expression. She herself smiled and said to everyone, I am an old woman, if I It probably wouldn't surprise anyone to fall down and die in a few minutes.But she walked into the Capitol in good spirits, where she told MPs: "How dare you think ordinary people don't care?" Talking to her in his office, a judge said, "Many of our laws in America were made possible by ordinary people like you who worked tirelessly."