Campaign Finance Flunks
A New York Times story notes that wealthy people have a new way to channel millions of dollars into independent expenditures to help or hurt candidates.
These new non-profit initiatives have no requirement to disclose contributors or the amounts they contribute. George Soros could drop in $10 million to defeat a candidate he dislikes, with no accountability. Meanwhile, a normal campaign contributor is restricted to giving only $2,300 per election segment, and all contributions must be publicly disclosed. This makes a mockery of campaign finance regulations. Given constitutional parameters, there will always be ways to get around the law.
Do-gooders are always tinkering with campaign finance regulations to reduce the influence of big money, but they mostly make things worse. The best approach would be to open elections to the free market, allowing anyone to contribute any amount they wish, but require immediate and total on-line disclosure with heavy penalties for violations. Voter would know exactly who is financing elections and could then choose accordingly. Under the current mish-mash of regulation, the discipline and accountability of direct and disclosed contributions to candidates and parties has lost out to big expenditures by dubious independent groups operating from the shadows.
The World is Going to Hell … NOT!
- For every dollar of U.S. economic output generated today, we burn less than half as much oil as 30 years ago.
- Even as the national media talks of the “jobless” recovery, the American economy added nearly 7 million net additional jobs during 2004 to 2006, and nearly 1 million more in 2007’s first seven months. (Jeff Thredgold’s Tea Leaf economic update)
Herbert Hoover and the Mormons
Hoover was so grateful that apostle-senator Reed Smoot cancelled his honeymoon to Hawaii and returned to Washington to help get Hoover’s naval treaty through, the President gave the Mormon apostle free reign of the White House for a two-week honeymoon. They even had a wedding breakfast, where Hoover gave a toast with water. (From Mike Winder’s Presidents and Prophets: The Story of America’s Presidents and the LDS Church)
Today in Political History
Nov. 13, 1956: In a victory for the civil rights movement, the Supreme Court strikes down laws calling for racial segregation on public buses. ( NBC5)
Nov. 13, 1969: V.P. Spiro Agnew charges television networks and newspapers with presenting biased versions of the news and misrepresenting the government's policies. (Source: Perspicuity)
Wise Words
"At what point shall we expect the approach of danger? By what means shall we fortify against it? Shall we expect some transatlantic military giant, to step the Ocean, and crush us at a blow? Never! All the armies of Europe, Asia and Africa combined, with all the treasure of the earth (our own excepted) in their military chest; with a Bonaparte for a commander, could not by force, take a drink from the Ohio, or make a track on the Blue Ridge, in a trial of a thousand years. At what point, then, is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer, if it ever reach us it must spring up amongst us. It cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide.”
-- Abraham Lincoln, address before the Young Men's Lyceum of Springfield, Illinois (Topic sites)
Campaign Tip
Children & Politics
Q: Politicians on both sides of the aisle have been using children to argue policy lately. What are the ethical implications of finding children to put in the spotlight?
A: I think it’s unethical to use children in this way. Children under the age of 18 are determined by law to not be able to fully comprehend and understand the consequences of their actions. That’s why we have statutory rape laws… .
Thus, a child is not fully able to comprehend the issues and how those issues are going to be played out. It seems to me adults should let children be children and not use them as pawns in adult arguments. You don’t know how it’s going to affect them in terms of their reaction to publicity or criticism. It has the potential for real harm to real children. (Column by Dr. Richard Lamb, an ethicist, in Campaigns & Elections magazine)
National Politics
Best Stories From . . .
-- The Hill: "Congressional Democratic leaders enter the year-end push with a host of volatile battles looming and time running out on their ability to control the national agenda."
-- National Journal: Columnist Stuart Taylor Jr. looks at "the political correctness rot" that infects American universities.
-- The Telegraph: "Like a great battleship at sea, the US industrial and export machine is slowly turning around. Within a couple of years, its big guns will be sweeping the world again, ready to silence pious talk about America's trade deficit -- and to menace chunks of Europe's manufacturing base."
Lighter Side
“He not only threw me under his campaign bus, he backed up and ran over me again.”
-- Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, on Mitt Romney’s reaction to Craig’s restroom arrest (Campaigns & Elections magazine) |
