Why Can't There Be Campaign Finance Reform?

I can’t remember the last time I spoke with anyone who actually likes our current system of campaign financing. Truthfully, the only people who actually support allowing virtually unlimited money to flow into election campaigns are the special interest groups. They have large amounts of money to spend and want to spend it for the sole purpose of influencing legislation that is favorable to their cause -- in other words, people who want the right to legally bribe elected officials. Bribery truly is the correct word here. While the money goes to the campaign’s bank account and not the candidate’s personal bank account, that’s a difference without significance; the candidate needs both accounts flush with money to save his job.

So, if the majority of Americans want to end legalized bribery of elected officials, why doesn’t it happen? Why does virtually every law that is passed to correct this enormous problem get ruled unconstitutional? Believe it or not, the answer our Supreme Court gives us is that these financial contributions are protected by the First Amendment right of free speech. The notion is that if the public does not have the right to spend money to speak their peace, their right to do so is abridged.

But is the right to spend money to speak the same thing as the right to speak? It used to be that, without money, one’s political views could not be heard very far beyond the range of his soap box, certainly not on prime time television. Of course, the internet has changed all that, and millions of Americans make their views known around the world every day with blogs or social media posts. But that’s beside the point, the Constitution protects speech; it does not protect campaign contributions, as well it could have, had our forefathers thought that was a needed protection.

Campaign finance reform is the single most important issue facing America today. Without it, elected officials vote as they are paid to vote, not as the merits of the issue may require. Too bad the smartest lawyers in America do not understand this basic fact.