Real campaign finance reform: dilute the bad money with lots of good money
In his recent article at Salon.com, “How to fix campaign financing forever for $50,” Farhad Manjoo explores what should be a national priority: campaign finance reform.
Why should it be a priority? Because private money corrupts all political dialogue. It makes us think that politicians are taking The People seriously, when they aren’t. Our current system of private political donations give birth to the ubiquitous Orwellian political sound bites (e.g., the Clear Sky Law).
Presidential candidates must now start raising at least $2 million a week, or $286,000 every day, including weekends, until the election. And the sales pitch for the contribution is not anything like this:
Please give me LOTS of money. In return, I won’t invite you to special gatherings of political and corporate elites. I won’t answer your phone calls any more than I answer the calls of people who don’t contribute anything. I won’t have my staff flock to hear your legislative proposals. All I’ll do is continue representing the interests of all the people.
What doesn’t work to fix the campaign contribution system? Contribution limits. Manjoo argues that getting around the limits “has become a huge Washington business.” Here’s another thing that doesn’t work: Making politicians disclose who gave what to whom. Manjoo suggests that “sunlight just isn’t so great a disinfectant.” Information is freely available, but there’s too much of it for the public to digest, or maybe we’re just apathetic. As if we don’t know that huge energy and …
