Campaign Finance Reform

I just read an article in USA Today that Obama leads Romney 47% to 45% -- in money spent on campaign advertising. Curiously that seems to be about the same lead as he has in the real polls, or is that not really a coincidence at all?

How do the hundreds of millions of dollars that are being spent on this year’s presidential election translate into the quality of the United States Government?

Here are a few things to think about:

•      How many people give large amounts of money without expecting something in return? And if they do expect favors, are they really not engaging in legalized bribery?

•      How much time does the president of the United States spend campaigning for the office? How much time does he spend campaigning for someone else who wants to be elected? Several years ago I watched a 60 Minutes interview with a retiring US senator who indicated he spent 60% of his time either raising money for his reelection campaign or actually campaigning for reelection. Is this how we want our elected officials to spend their time? We need dedicated legislators who care as much about the country as they do about keeping their jobs; we don't need professional fundraisers.

•      Much of the money is spent on attack ads. That is, ads that attack not the ideas being espoused but the candidate offering the ideas. This serves primarily to make Americans distrustful of government, which is a huge loss in a democracy.

•      The Supreme Court majority has decided that the really effective campaign financing laws are an unconstitutional abridgment of our collective right of free speech. Really? Giving tens of millions of dollars to political candidates is neither “free” nor “speech.” Worse, to the very extent that large dollar contributions to candidates or their advertising may actually permit rich people to exercise their right of free speech, it has the exact opposite effect on everyone else whose rights of free speech become meaningless without the budgets to publicize them in competition with the ideas espoused by those who are wealthy enough to do so. As I see it, the Supreme Court’s decisions to abolish campaign finance laws have actually done more to curb the right of free speech than promote it.

Campaign finance reform is the single most important issue we face today. Give our elected officials unfettered freedom to make decisions without risking loss of major campaign contributions, and they will do a better job. Give them the time they need to do their jobs right without wasting most of their time on their reelection campaigns, and they will do a better job. And if they do a better job, they will solve the current economic crisis; the only reason the crisis is not resolved today is because campaign financing considerations get in the way of clear unbiased thinking.