Consensus on Removing Money from Politics? But Don’t Put it to an Election…

Throughout the election season, I wrote several posts about the danger of money in politics. This was a factor that we talked about briefly early on in this semester, because Martin Wolf writes that the power of money in a democracy is not a serious concern. Sheer volume and concentration of contributions in the 2012 election, however, should give rise to attention if not also grave concern. 

Of course, it’s not surprising to hear a liberal decrying the state of campaign finance – we’re on the losing end of Super-PAC contributions and we vocally opposed the Citizens United decision. However, in the most recent election, Democrats still received considerable sums of cash as a result of the lifting of campaign donation restrictions.

A recent Economist article surmised that the political climate might be open to campaign finance reform moving forward. Republicans, traditionally opponents of regulations in this area, might feel scarred from the recent election, and especially from the ineffectiveness of their donations in that election. There is also longstanding public support for such changes, which did help spur the McCain-Feingold reforms of 2002. With the most influential donors on the losing side of the last presidential election, the hope is that the road might have been cleared for at least some changes to existing law.

This is promising, so long as Democrats are still willing to jump on board with new regulations; however, it is important to remember the enduring impact of Citizens United. Because the Supreme Court struck down Congressional regulations through this case in the name of free political speech, new regulations would require a Constitutional Amendment, which would begin in Congress and then need to be approved by the states. This, of course, would take time and very considerable effort. It might be possible to pass new regulations mandating a higher standard of transparency without going through this process, which some liberal proponents of campaign finance reform refer to as the most likely option.

It is important for the President and Congress to put their feet down moving forward and attempt to pass new campaign finance reform that will limit the power of money, and especially anonymous money, in American elections.