Money and Politics
I wrote yesterday about the resignation of Duke Cunningham, and an article in today’s Washington Post is making me revisit my remarks so that my position will be clear. In discussing the growing wariness about the commingling of money and politics, those quoted in the article seem to indicate that they think money and politics is a problem. I disagree, and I long have—I hated on McCain-Feingold in the day.
The problem is not money changing hands—it’s that it changes hands under the table. There’s so much suspicion of money influencing political decisions—whether it’s concerns about whether Big Oil owns the Bush Administration, or whether Big Trial Lawyers and Labor own the Democratic Party—that what we need aren’t controls and limits but openness.
If everyone had known that Duke Cunningham was in the back pocket of a defense contractor, no one would trust him to be objective in that regard.
Openness is the first and most important step towards good governance … and we really don’t have it right now.
You’re forgetting that being a representative isn’t supposed to be a “good gig.” Cunningham isn’t supposed to represent the defense companies that paid him off; he’s supposed to represent the people of his district. Openness isn’t the point, because it’s not OKAY to have an unreliable representative for your district in the House because your district only gets one representative. This isn’t about equality between parties or media perception; this is about the people.
That’s why I’m for full and exclusive funding of all federal elections by the federal government, and prohibiting ALL private parties from donating at all.
November 29th, 2005 at 20:25Well, I used to agree with that concept, Steve, but I don’t trust the federal government to disburse funds at all, and I do hold to the concept that political giving is, indeed, free speech.
I agree with you—national politics should be about service and not about the money and the interns. It would be far, far less about the money if full disclosure was happening and we knew who all was getting money from whom. As baseball players proved in 2005 [and will more in 2006], getting caught is not as bad of a deterrent as simply being found out.
November 29th, 2005 at 23:23