EDITORIAL Lott uses free speech as a cheap political
ploy
How can it happen that, as the sleaze of the
Clinton White House campaign funding scandal continues to ooze out, staining an
ever-widening circle of political activity, the effort to close the floodgates
on political donations died a quiet death?
Sen. Trent Lott, a Mississippi Republican and majority leader,
said his manipulations that killed the McCain-Feingold bill were done in the
interests of the First Amendment, to preserve free speech. McCain-Feingold
would have ended soft money donations to political campaigns and
dealt with other campaign fund-raising abuses.
We saw Lott defend his free speech rationale several times on
television and heard him on radio, and not once did he seem to crack a smile or
lose composure, the way actors sometimes crack up when theyre trying to
deliver serious lines. So maybe Lott, somewhere deep inside, actually believes
something of what he is saying.
What a stretch.
The simple truth is that the Republicans benefit enormously -- far
more than the Democrats, even in their most shameless White House
coffee-and-sleepover fundraising capers -- by the relentless flow of donations
from corporations and rich individuals. The only corner of campaign corruption
to benefit the Democrats is the money that pours in from labor unions, but that
doesnt begin to make up the difference.
During the last election fundraising cycle, according to figures
published in The New York Times, even with the White House fundraising
mill running full tilt, the Republican Party won the fundraising battle $138.2
million to $123.9 million. During the first six months of this year, the
Republicans have raised $21.7 million to the Democrats $13.7.
So it isnt too difficult to work up a bit of healthy
skepticism when Lott decides to wrap himself in the First Amendment.
The speech he talks about, of course, is hardly free. People are
paying huge sums to corner a segment of some legislators brain and
indelibly mark it with a special interests point of view. Simply put, our
politics is being purchased shamelessly.
At the same time, the big money, of course, pushes out the small
money. The average voters franchise -- and freedom of speech -- is
diminished with each new bundle of cash. If the interests with the most money
are not your interests, your views are likely to be left unrepresented.
Taking Lott seriously is equivalent to saying if someone has
enough money to buy all the newspapers and radio and TV stations in town, fine.
Dont worry about silencing other voices, as long as we preserve the right
to free speech of the guy with the most money. But then, we know there are laws
preventing one person from buying up all the voices.
Lotts spin about free speech might make for a good chuckle
if it werent also dangerous.
Free speech is one of our most precious rights and Lotts
ludicrous use of it dilutes its significance and threatens to make it one more
cheap political lever in a tawdry melodrama thick with cheap tricks.
Campaign finance reform supposedly will reappear as a topic for
Congress when the Senate reconvenes in late October. We hope that Republicans
listen more carefully to their leadership on the Senate Governmental Affairs
Committee that is conducting hearings into campaign finance practices and less
to Lotts silliness.
Reform is essential if the whole enterprise of American politics
is to avoid being washed away in a tidal wave of cash and voter cynicism.
National Catholic Reporter, October 24,
1997
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