I am overwhelmed by options. Every day I'm given new and better ones - stores offer me new products, Brown offers me new classes and activities and my TV offers me new issues and people to care about. In the hyper-media, hyper-representational, hyper-connected world of today, I am catered to.
Of course, such "optionality" has side-effects on which normative judgments are up for debate: First, I've learned to see myself as the star of my own show, entitled to pick whatever options I choose. Second, I've been known to go instinctively numb when options are numerous and noisy. It was in this context that I got involved with Rhode Island for Fair Elections.
I wasn't much of a social activist up until last year, for precisely the above reasons. This isn't profound - many an opinions column has contemplated students' relationships to social activism in the context of those phenomena. The point of this article is to tell you that, even if you're like me, even if options and opportunities have subdued you in the past and left you with tinges of selfishness and numbness, there is one unique political opportunity on the table this year that even you should be interested in: Fair Elections.
Stated simply, Fair Elections would sharply reduce the influence of money on Rhode Island state politics by creating a system of full public financing of candidates' campaigns. It has worked in Maine, Arizona, Connecticut and several other states, and even political economists give it credit as the one kind of campaign finance reform that has actually changed politics in general. It has been so successful that it's even getting some attention in Congress.
Now, you can try to frame "money in politics" as another option, another issue, but it just doesn't work. Money is the power that flows through so many other options, so many other issues. Health care laws, environmental standards, education reform - they're all affected by political contributions from wealthy individuals, corporations and unions who exploit a weakly regulated system of campaign financing in order to gain influence in the halls of the State House.
That's why I liked the campaign. I wasn't picking a particular option, but handling all of them at the same time. And while campaign financing is not the only determinant of governmental priorities, it's probably the first one that needs fixing.
Why does it work? Because Fair Elections isn't naive like the 2002 McCain-Feingold Bill, which eliminated certain kinds of contributions and limited others. That kind of reform makes a dent, but it doesn't address two fundamental paradoxes: In the longest-running democracy of the modern period, (a) politicians almost always need to have money or know people with money to get their voices heard and (b) politicians are public servants forced to raise private contributions.
So Fair Elections goes one step further. By going door-to-door and collecting a specified number of $5 contributions, candidates prove their electability and receive grants that allow them to run competitive campaigns. That's it - no real fundraising. The public buys the system back for itself. And the investment comes with returns - taxpayers save money when lobbyists' and special interests' ideas are judged on their merits.
Today at 3 p.m., Brown's Democracy Matters and a broad coalition including Common Cause Rhode Island and League of Women Voters Rhode Island will hold a press conference in the State House as the bill is introduced. I think you should come, and not just because you'll have some delicious hot chocolate. You should come because it's not just "one more option."
And that's the real problem today: politics has become one more option for the consumer. When politics takes the aesthetic equivalent of channel surfing - think blogs, niche advocacy groups, Google news alerts, RSS feeders - they're molded into a blueprint for option-presentation and option-surfing that makes them seem, well, pretty optional. This shift has us all reacting to issues instead of making an affirmative commitment to change.
It is only when we make these kinds of commitments that the powerful actually lose power instead of merely adjusting to reactive demands. The Fair Elections bill won't bring complete justice and harmony to this tiny state - how could it, when no one can agree on what that would mean? - but it will be a real change to how politics are run, and that's why it has a rare alliance of politicians, corporations and unions in an uproar.
Are you free on Tuesday afternoon? Do you think governments and democracy matter? Are you looking for the all-encompassing opportunity? Then come help us cut the power off at its source.
Kailin Clarke '08 asks you to meet Democracy Matters at Sayles Hall at 2:15 p.m. today, descend College Hill and rock the State House to its foundations.
