“It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it.”

Upton Sinclair captured in a few words why our current political campaign finances need to be reformed. Trump was right when he said, “The system is rigged.” It is rigged in favor of whoever has enough money to make campaign contributions to buy a politician and his “understanding” of an issue.

How did we end up with a political system that is so far off from commonly held values like integrity and honor?

The late actor Robin Williams said, “Politicians should wear sponsor jackets like Nascar drivers, then we know who owns them.” The oil and gas industry has consistently been a major contributor to our Rep. Scott Tipton. His “sponsor jacket” would bear their patch. Tipton is on the Energy and Mineral resources committee and has recently come out strongly in favor of more gas development.

The gas industry has been under fire for not being quite the “clean burning” energy it was thought to be, when taking into account the methane leakage in extracting it.

Tipton voted to further reduce methane regulations, making it even easier to pollute. The public bears the cost of fracking waste and greenhouse gas emissions to our watersheds and atmosphere. It appears Tipton “understands” his contributors’ interests quite well, ensuring himself future jacket patches and endorsements from them.

Jan D. Dixon

Cortez