By R. Emmett Tyrrell, Jr. on 2.7.02 @ 12:32AM
Alas 'tis true -- campaign finance reform is again in danger of being passed in Congress where our elected representatives admit that they cannot be trusted with the money they raise.
Washington -- Is there no end to the corrupting
effluvia of Enron? First the corrupters afflicted Enron's
creditors, investors, and employees. Now they have afflicted one of
Washington, D.C.'s finest classical music DJ's. Said he the other
day between the scherzos of Chopin and the fortissimos of
Beethoven: finally something positive has come out of the Enron
scandal, to wit: CAMPAIGN FINANCE REFORM. Whereupon this sorely
deluded musical sophisticate told listeners to stand by for a
report from Capitol Hill that owing to Enron's fall campaign
finance reform was again being contemplated by the solons and numas
on the Hill.
Alas 'tis true -- campaign finance reform is again in danger of
being passed in Congress where our elected representatives admit
that they cannot be trusted with the money they raise. So weak is
their probity that they fear financial supporters will turn them
into willing tools if they accept "soft money," and possibly even
"hard money." What they might do with counterfeit money is
apparently too diabolical to mention.
For now they are going after "soft money." Goaded by the
oncoming clouds of Enron, Speaker J. Dennis Hastert is calling for
a vote on a campaign finance reform bill that the Congress last
summer stuffed away in formaldehyde. It smells but they are going
to take it out of the jar and vote on it anyway. According to the
New York Times, it is "the broadest campaign finance
reform since the Watergate era." In truth, this particular specimen
of campaign reform is as deceptive as any piece of humbuggery ever
conceived by any of Enron's gifted accounts jugglers. Campaign
finance reform is a delusion, as likely to reform American politics
as the Boy Scout's oath is likely to reform the Rev. Osama bin
Ladin.
Stripped of its halo, campaign finance reform is the Washington
elites' way of enhancing their power: the media elites, by
enlarging their importance in politics; the incumbent pols, by
strengthening their incumbency. Moreover, after passing this
particular bill both groups presume that they will have ingratiated
themselves to the naïve among the citizenry
temporarily, while keeping the naïfs even further
removed from politics.
By reducing soft money in politics the voices of established
media will gain in preponderance while the voices of those with
soft money decline. Likewise the voices of political upstarts will
decline in political races. With still more regulation of campaign
finance, political veterans will have fewer challenges from
outsiders who lack the connections and the background to master the
increasingly complicated regulations. The only political outsiders
who benefit from the kind of campaign finance reform being
contemplated on Capitol Hill now are the rich and the celebrated.
Their money and connections will allow them to challenge the
incumbents and leap ahead of any ordinary citizen aspiring to
office.
Obviously, campaign finance reform is favored by elites. The
only ordinary citizens favoring it are those who have no political
aspirations whatsoever or those who have only limited analytical
power. Of course ordinary citizens who pride themselves in holding
to the values of elites might also favor the delusion of campaign
reform, which is to say that such reforms are delusions held by the
easily deluded.
Fundamentally there are two explanations for the popularity of
campaign finance reform. The first is that elites always want to
remain elite. The second is a widespread misconception about
corruption.
Many Americanos believe the old adage that money is the root of
all evil. If this were so, the world could be returned to its
prelapsarian paradise by a simple recourse favored by many of
history's most eminent utopians. Eliminate money -- no money, no
evil. Possibly that was what Dr. Marx had in mind. Unfortunately
money is not the root of all evil; evil is the root of all evil.
Many of the goody-goody politicians who claim they would be
paragons of virtue if it were not for campaign contributions are in
error. Freed from the presence of soft money or even hard money
most of these politicians would be just as bad. Once again, some
politicians are lying to you. Not surprisingly they are the same
ones claiming to be virtuous.
(R. Emmett Tyrrell, Jr. is the editor in chief of
The American Spectator.)
