Ever wonder why you can't seem to save a little cash?ÿ
You wake up. You look in the mirror. There's something on your skin and it doesn't look like soap is going to fix it. You go to the Health Center and get a prescription for some salve but when you get to CVS, you find out it's $70 and there's no cheap generic equivalent. Could that be because the pharmaceutical companies give lots of money to politicians, who then allow the companies to keep their Super Skin Cream patent for as long as possible? Well, maybe.ÿ
You hop on the AU Shuttle to go back to campus, wishing you still had your car. You had to sell it because you just couldn't afford the skyrocketing cost of auto insurance anymore. Is that perhaps because the insurance companies donate to the campaigns of elected officials, who then vote down any bills promising low-cost auto insurance? Quite possibly.ÿ
You try not to worry about the car situation because you have bigger fish to fry. You're a senior and you'll need to find a job soon. More importantly, you'll need one that pays enough to cover all of your expenses and your hefty school loan payment every month. You hear that your expense is going to be even more than what graduates were shelling out just a few years ago. Is that due to the fact that loan companies are sending money to politicians, who thank them by raising the interest rates on college loans? Hey, I think I see a pattern here...ÿ
Ah, the power of money in politics.ÿ
Money in politics affects nearly every issue, from prescription medicine to school loans, from electricity bills to cable TV bills, from food contamination to the environment. If you're one of the many students who has an internship on the Hill, you might have seen these exchanges in action. In fact, if you hope to run for office one day, your major activity may well be constantly chasing after funds. You too could be doing favors for your donors at the expense of your constituents.ÿ
Who is at fault? It's the Democrats. It's the Republicans. It's the third parties. It's the corporations. It's the unions. It's the wealthy individuals. It's the system that's supposed to be a democracy. ÿ
At the end of last semester, the Supreme Court ruled that the McCain-Feingold law is constitutional. We've had rules about who, when and how much money one can give to politicians since Teddy Roosevelt decided that this "legal bribery" had to be regulated. In the '70s, someone literally handed a politician a suitcase full of money and the American people questioned whether those of us without money had a voice in government; more laws were enacted. Now the McCain-Feingold law, otherwise known as the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act (BCRA), is attempting to close the soft money loopholes once and for all and regulate how one pays for electioneering advertisements that pose as ads about the issues.ÿ
Unfortunately, even though the Court rules that the BCRA addresses these two endeavors in a constitutional manner, we still have a political system that is run on money, and enormous amounts of it at that. Offering a public financing option in as many elections as possible will close these loopholes. Better yet, since partaking in the public financing system (including it's expenditure limits) is voluntary, it's not constitutionally objectionable. If we could couple this solution with some free air time for candidates and increase the funding for the presidential public financing system, we might have a real democracy on our hands.ÿ
As you might expect, elected officials are wary of creating laws that will negate the control of the money they've accumulated and return the power to the voters. Consequently, we end up with laws like BCRA, a rather watered-down version of reform. Only a major uprising of the people will truly reform our campaign finance system. We need to show our politicians that we do care about this issue and we want them to serve the public, not just the wealthy few. ÿ
Democracy Matters campus coordinator Moamar Tidjani-Dourodjaye is currently leading this important grassroots effort at AU. Right now, you can get involved in a movement that not only affects the upcoming presidential election but all future American elections as well. Regardless of the Supreme Court decision on McCain-Feingold, the next step toward a government of, by, and for the people is for us to demand fair and equitable elections through publicly funded campaigns.
