(Host) The latest report of political contributions for Vermont
statewide campaigns has got writer and former state legislator who
commentator Bill Mares thinking about a book he recently read on
national politics and money.
(Mares) At first the phrase sounds
like an oxymoron – behavior that is "lawful but corrupt." But for years,
Harvard Law School professor Lawrence Lessig has focused on the erosion
of integrity in business, journalism, law, medicine, and especially
politics, that leads to this compromising conduct. In his book REPUBLIC,
LOST, he makes a depressing case for the near-utter corruption of
Congress by money. This is not bags of illegal cash in mid-night parking
garage trysts; it’s the legal system. Where t he founders meant for the
government to be dependent upon the people, alone, we now have a
government that is far too dependent upon the funders.
With
legislators spending 30-70% of their time chasing money, they resemble
alcoholics who are always thinking about the bottle rather than doing
their job.
Lessig says the political fund-raising system was
already broken before the infamous Citizen United decision of two years
ago, which upheld the legality of unlimited independent political
expenditures.
Lessig’s book is full of examples of how money has
become the Alpha and Omega of Congress. The revolving door between
Congress and lobbying organizations never seems to stop turning.
Temporary tax policy events, like extensions of bills, or raising the
debt ceiling create more opportunities for fund-raising. After accepting
large campaign contributions, Congress gave Wall Street the power to
develop ever more complex financial instruments which Lessig says,
"privatize the reward and socialize the risk."
Lessig elegantly
describes a complex matrix where lobbying money gives us high corn
subsidies, high sugar tariffs, ethanol, High Fructose Corn Syrup, more
obesity and by extension far higher health costs.
Last year he
noted sarcastically that the country was in the middle of two wars, with
huge problems in unemployment, national debt, and health care, but yet
"the number one issue Congress focused on was the bank swipe fee crisis.
" Why? Because, if you as a Congressman, you pretend you’re not quite
sure where you stand, all of a sudden tons of cash comes flowing down on
top of your campaign.
And if you wonder why Congress has a 17%
approval rating – which is less than the King of England had among
colonists in 1776 – it’s because 75% of Americans believe that money
buys results in Congress.
In looking for solutions, Lessig’s
idealism takes over. He wants a constitutional convention to establish
that public elections should be publicly funded, and to make
transparent, all contributions and individual expenditures. He wants to
reaffirm that when the Declaration of Independence speaks of entities
"endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights," it’s meaning
applies to natural persons only.
Lessig calls his plan a long
shot. "We don’t do well responding to bads that stand between good and
evil," he says. And compared to problems such as fascism, institutional
racism, sexism and other social ills that we’ve confronted in the 20th
century, he admits that "the corrupting influence of money is small.
But," he concludes, "unless we solve this, we won’t solve anything
else."