Not Criminal or Illegal ... That's the Real Crime!

In a recent letter to the local Charleston newspaper about campaign finance reform, the writer referred to "under-handedness" and implied that those in government might be "guilty of some of the biggest white collar crimes on Earth." 

While I agree our system of government has become corrupted by the influence of money, the real crime is this: it's not a crime!

The insidious nature of government corruption in our nation is that most money influence isn't criminal.  In fact it is perfectly legal.  To be clear, bribery IS criminal, and those involved are prosecuted (think Rod Blagojevich).  But the use of money to influence campaigns hardly ever occurs in the form of bribery.

It’s the system that is corrupt, not the politicians. No candidate (incumbent or not) can run a campaign (successful or not) without funding.  The systematic corruption of government lies in how election campaigns are funded.  Until we understand this subtle aspect of the corrupting influence of money, we will be attacking only the symptoms, not the root cause, and we will not achieve campaign finance reform.

As in a tango, campaign finance reform requires two sides working together: candidates must refuse funding from lobbyists and PACs, and the electorate must use the voting booth to reward candidates who refuse special interest money and punish those who don’t.  We need to get our candidates to pledge that they will not take special-interest money to fund their campaigns, and we need an electorate willing to hold them accountable to that pledge. Our elected officials should be working for us, “We the People”, and not for the lobbyists and special interest groups.