The New Republic Online

The New Republic Online: User Center: Leon Wieseltier says in this week's edition: "Perhaps the most odious feature of contemporary conservatism is its equation of success with virtue. In the realm of economics, this long ago resulted in the strange belief in the moral superiority of the wealthy, a vulgar Calvinism according to which money is a proof of merit and riches are a mark of righteousness. How else is wealth acquired in America, after all, except justly? And now, in the aftermath of the election, the equation of success and virtue, the conflation of outer worth with inner worth, has been extended to the realm of politics. We are instructed that the Republicans won because they have 'values' and the Democrats lost because they do not have 'values.' (Or quantitatively speaking, 59.5 million Americans have 'values' and 55.9 million Americans do not have 'values.') Winners are good, losers are bad...."

Or as Tewje the Milkman says in "Fiddler on the Roof" -"when you are rich, they think you know". This is the subliminal meaning of the Supreme Court's equation of money contributions to the political process with "free speech". As long as the country believes that, no serious campaign finance reform will be possible, and without it we will continue to have this circus passing for election campaign. It starts too early and costs too much. By dragging out over years, the campaign tends to diffuse itself on ancillary irrelevancies, picked out of the headlines, that stand in the way of serious discussion of the problems confronting the electorate. The trivial displaces the essential and thus a candidate can win the contest by just repeating that s/he will not change his/her mind on ....s/he need not say. The voters are left to fill the blanks with whatever their fancy of the day is.

It costs too much, and the candidates and their employees spend inordinate amounts of time finding the money...to raise more money. A campaign gains momentum just by stating that it has raised or spent more than the competing campaign. The unlimited advertising digresses away from issues to personal slurs. If not so much money were slopping around, advertising could stay more focused and be truly informative.

Of course, all the money raised over such a long cycle (a permanent cycle) nurtures the perception that only money matters and that the system is utterly corrupted. Is this what "Liberty, equality and freedom" has come to?












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