Students often feel like they don't have any political power. In many respects they are right. How many students can give five-digit or even six-digit donations to political parties? Today those who do not have large amounts of money often have their voices dwarfed by those who give huge unregulated, unrestricted donations to political parties in the form of soft money. But all of that is about to change.
Early on the morning of Feb. 14, the United States House of Representatives passed a bill banning soft money. The Senate has already passed a similar version of this bill, and will hopefully take up the House version of the bill in the next few weeks. This bill will make history as the only restructuring of our campaign finance laws since the 1970s.
The vote in the Senate is extremely important. This bill is not just good for our country as a whole and the future of our democracy, but this will specifically help Tufts students assert their political might.
Ralph Reed, former Enron lobbyist and Christian Coalition chief, said in a recently released memo to Enron, "In public policy, it matters less who has the best arguments and more who gets heard - and by whom." Mr. Reed used this logic to justify his $380,000 fee.
Senator John McCain, sponsor of the campaign finance reform measure, often says that everyone, including himself, is corrupted by the big money in politics. He admits that even he has been corrupted by the huge unrestricted, unlimited soft money donations.
We have seen money corrupt very clearly in the recent airline bailout where the airlines got billions of dollars while they laid off hundreds of thousands of workers. The support went to the corporations rather than to those hundreds of thousands of employees who lost their jobs. Similarly, in the Enron scandal, Enron had contributed to the campaigns of numerous key legislators and many of their executives collected huge sums of money while their employees lost their life savings.
While students lack large amounts of cash to give to politicians, they control a very powerful piece of virtually every political campaign - the staff. Most campaign staffers are very young, and many of them are students. Additionally, every campaign has numerous amounts of student volunteers. With the large campaign contributors out of the way, students will have the power to assert themselves as a political powerhouse.
What does this mean for Tufts students? Tufts students often play large roles these campaigns. In the last presidential race, Tufts students played a key role in the Bush, McCain, Gore, and Bradley campaigns in New Hampshire. Furthermore, Tufts recent graduates often play key roles on Capitol Hill and in these campaigns. Without the influence of soft money, candidates will be able to listen more to their staff and more importantly to voters.
Ultimately, the soft money ban will break gridlock on issues important to the strength of our democracy - things such as the Patient's Bill of Rights, which has been a fight between the Republicans, backed by the insurance companies and Democrats, who backed by the trial lawyers. Both have kept the voice of the people from being heard. Napster is another example where the voice of the people was dwarfed by the voice of big money. The 50 million people who used Napster weren't enough to dwarf the millions of dollars of the recording artists.
There is still much work to be done on this issue, though. Campaign finance reform still needs to pass the Senate. Senator Mitch McConnell (R-KY) has vowed an all out fight and has threatened a Senate filibuster. The supporters of reform seem to have the 60 votes needed to force a vote on the issue, but this support is not by any means guaranteed. Large corporations who have benefited from the unlimited soft money donations are fighting as well to keep their control over our democracy.
Similarly, President Bush has not yet indicated whether he will sign the bill or cave to the pressure of the big money donors who backed his last campaign. During his campaign Bush did not support a soft money ban, but now he seems to have realized that it would be very costly for him to veto the bill.
We must keep up this pressure on both the Senate and the president. Both Massachusetts senators promised to vote for the measure, but they probably could use a reminder. If you come from another state, call both of your senators in your home state, as well. The general switchboard number is 202-224-3121. Additionally, we should all call President Bush and tell him where we stand on this issue. The president's phone number is 202-456-1414.
The McCain Feingold bill in the Senate is not a cure-all. I don't mean to suggest that banning soft money will solve the problem of money in politics. However, this bill is a great step in the right direction on this very important issue, and as leaders we must take steps insure its passage at help increase the political power of students everywhere.
@s:Soft money hits students hardest
