Bribes versus campaign finance

5 Comments

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  Linsey January 8, 2011 at 8:48 am

  As much as I agree with you that campaign contributions construed as free speech is an awfully big stretch, I do have to take issue with your argument. Speeding is illegal and the offer of a bribe implies acknowledgment of the initial bad behavior. Congress is responsible for crafting laws that restrict bad behavior. We cannot realistically expect corporations to self-govern if what they are doing is technically legal, not to mention de rigueur.

  Having said that though, I agree completely regarding the hypocrisy of this scenario. Time and again, Congress fails completely at honest self-governance, or, frankly, any sort of self-governance.
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  Barak January 8, 2011 at 8:36 pm

  Yes, it is a stretch, but that was my point and it raises a difficult question. Why shouldn’t a bribe be considered free speech? Let’s say a police officer pulls me over for speeding and I say to him or her “you guys are doing a great job keeping us safe. Here’s $100. Go get some beers with the officers after your shift.” Now, I am not asking the officer to do anything special for me, but the implication is clear and not legal. Similarly, people who spend money to help candidates win elections can’t ask for special treatment, yet the implication of their efforts are clear as well. Why is the former illegal and the latter free speech?
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  Imara January 8, 2011 at 10:26 pm

  I’ve never bought the idea of campaign contributions as free speech, and basically just see it as one more example of our inability or lack of interest in policing legislators. Pretty much all of the varied bodies that are supposed to police legislative ethics are a joke. Unfortunately this is also one of those issues the Supreme Court is utterly no help in, supporting the ideas of corporate rights as equal to private citizens etc.
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  Barak January 8, 2011 at 10:50 pm

  This is certainly true. What is also true is that it is up to the voters to ensure our democracy, not our elected officials. Members of Congress don’t elect themselves and unless we take a stand, we can’t expect our elected officials to do so. “Delegating” our failure to our elected officials entrenches the problem. The real failures are not our institutions or our elected officials, but ourselves.
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  Imara January 11, 2011 at 6:32 pm

  Sadly agreed Barak, often thats the issue regarding domestic politics that I find most frustrating. Though US institutions are flawed in a number of deep ways, ultimately an uninformed/misguided electorate if not blatant apathy seems to be to blame for our political woes.