Solution Shortage

by digby

I don’t know if you happened to catch Bill Moyers last night, but it featured one of the most confusing and unsatisfying debates I’ve ever seen. It wasn’t because the debaters were bad. (It was liberal Lawrence Lessig and libertarian Nick Gillespie.) It was clearly because nobody really knows how to deal with the immense problem of corporate money in politics.

I come down on Lessig’s side generally, and found Gillespie to be nearly incoherent. But Lessig’s comments were unsatisfying as well. Public financing is good, but I don’t think it solves the problem of this glut of corporate money in politics and the intellectual capture of virtually all members of the ruling class by the worst players in the financial industry.

These two fellows are as smart as anyone and yet I got the feeling by the end of the discussion that while they certainly disagreed about the Citizens United ruling (the libertarian being typically blase about the power of big money) to the extent they agreed that the system was dysfunctional, neither of them really had the vaguest clue about how to fix it.

LAWRENCE LESSIG: … That’s why I think we’ve got to begin to think about a constitutional change that makes possible or secures reform. Now, I think we should push for citizen-funded elections today. And there’s a bill right now in Congress, the Larson-Jones bill that would achieve it. And let’s risk the Roberts court. But in the longer run, I think we’ve got to take back control of our democracy, both from the lobbyists and from the Supreme Court and set up a system where we can believe once again in what our government does.

BILL MOYERS: And in the long run, what do you think we ought to do?

NICK GILLESPIE: I, well, you know, I think that we should move in the direction that Citizens United is pointing. And to have less campaign finance regulation. Because that will increase the amount and variety of speech. When you talk about having, you know, controlling or taking back our democracy, that means saying, “Okay, you can speak now. You cannot speak now.” In the end, it’s about the suppression of speech, which is the most dangerous thing.

I don’t like corporations. I don’t like politicians. I, for whatever reason, I love free speech. And I see this decision as enabling more of that, which will help me and my, you know, gang of ragtag utopians, hopefully, pull off the caper of the 21st century, and actually work towards a government that, you know, does its proper functions well, and leaves us the rest alone, to live our lives in peace.

LAWRENCE LESSIG: So, yay, free speech, we agree about that.

NICK GILLESPIE: Absolutely.

LAWRENCE LESSIG: Horrible, horrible lobbyist, fundraising Congress. We also used to agree about that, at the end of your video. So, I should think we agree. We should have more free speech and less control by lobbyists or the funders. And have a Congress that cares about the people and not about their funders.

NICK GILLESPIE: And we can do that now. We don’t need a constitutional amendment. What we need to do is to say to our congressmen, “If you vote for this law, if you vote for this policy, you’re done. You’re fried.” And that can happen. And it has happened. And it should happen more. I think we are moving into a world of more engaged politics, more participatory politics, because of the internet. Because of other dimensions of life. Decentralization of power or rather of knowledge, if not of political power. And it will lead to a decentralization of political power.

Does any of that happy talk inspire confidence? I certainly agree that we should try to defeat candidates who disappoint us. Obviously. But it’s not really going to be any easier when corporations can buy up every ad slot in the weeks going into an election, is it? I’ll certainly do my best to “get the word out” but you’ll have to pardon me if I’m not quite as rosy about the future of our participatory democracy in the wake of this decision as Mr Libertarian is. And yes, constitutional amendments are good and we should take back our country.

That’s it?

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