Money Can Change People Sometimes

I know I'm supposed to be really upset about the "corporate money" decision of the Supreme Court, but I can't quite muster the requisite outrage. Glenn Greenwald - to my utter shock - actually lays out the complete case for my own ambivalence, and beyond his take... I don't necessarily have more to say on it.

Well, just this: I think if people plan to be serious about campaign finance reform, then it can't just be a fair-weather exercise in opposing the money raised by your opponents, or trying to punish those who give to them. To get good, serious reform, everyone has to take a hit. And until progressives see that... nothing, really, can change.

In the last few election cycles, for a number of reasons, Democrats finally solved some fundamental "money parity" problems with the GOP. Partly, it was the internet, which greatly expanded options to fundraise from people with lower incomes who could give small amounts or in small increments. That unleashed a deep reserve of goodwill among less well off liberals whose money could, in aggregate, amount to substantial amounts.

But part of the gains, too, stem from the shift of EEP (Educated, Elite Professionals) to the left; with bankers, lawyers, and others in a position to give now interested in liberal causes, parity with wealthy Republican donors was easier to achieve. And with it came natural increases in corporate donations from entities controlled by these wealthy individuals: law firms, high tech companies, and as has been for a good while, the entertainment industries and media firms.

Citizens United is, without a doubt, a problematic decision; it invites new troubles, restores an avenue for excessive ad spending, and will, no doubt, unleash a string of unintended consequences... ones that, I suspect, Republicans have to know don't all work in their favor (unions and other lefty groups free to advertise against Republicans is going to hurt. A lot). But we're here because the regulations, as written, never really made a lot of sense and undermine our faith in free speech. There are other, better ways to address questions of "corporations as people" and even other ways to reform campaign financing. But mostly, we have to stop doing campaign reform that's conveniently tailored to help us and hurt them, whoever "they" are.

One of the results of the decision has been a lot of blogging under variations of "Money Money Money... Money" meant to evoke the O'Jays signature hit "For The Love of Money", surely one of the great songs of all time. As I've been vaguely out of sync with the anger over Citizens United, I've been more than a little taken aback over the use of the song. Darker, dirtier than most people realize, Foe The Love Of Money paints a bleak picture (it was the seventies and it was ugly in the urban jungle) of all of us and what we'll do for money. But the point is... it's all of us. None of us get to stand outside, untouched. Don't let money change you... but it probably will.

We don't like to talk about all the money Barack Obama raised from Goldman Sachs. Or the way Joe Biden is the recipient of enormous sums from the law firms of the civil bar (tort reform, anyone? Anyone?).  We like even less asking questions about why enormous donations of money and time from Unions doesn't, in its way, have a distorting effect on liberal politics... not always to the good (teaching standards, merit pay, removing bad teachers... I know there's a link here, somewhere). It's easy for us to look at a few bad actors on the right - Mormons paid for Prop 8! Oil companies oppose environmental reform! - rather than admit that, deeply, money touches all of our politics, affects most of what we do, and don't do. And explains why we do - and don't do - it.

I do believe, deeply, that we need reform of campaign financing... but part of the change, really, is things we have to change in ourselves - not letting advertising drive our every decision making process, but at the same time, persuading people with ideas and policies, rather than shouting and name calling. Or we can grow up, and admit that this is who we are and what we have to live with, that money in our system has to go somewhere, and the distorting effect of money on our campaigns will never, really, go away. Money changes... everything. And all of us.  And for the love of money... well, do you?

Comments

[jinb]

I do believe, deeply, that we need reform of campaign financing... but part of the change, really, is things we have to change in ourselves - not letting advertising drive our every decision making process...

Wait. So you're saying because individuals are succeptible to advertising, that government does not have the ability to regulate political campaigns?

Lost me there.