May 20, 2002
From the desk of Jane Galt:Arrggghh!! I knew this was
Arrggghh!! I knew this was going to happen. Let me clarify one more time: I do not want to debate campaign finance reform. I don't think it is going to work. I'm pretty damn sure I'm right. No one has yet presented me with any argument as to why I am wrong. But I have a fundamental lack of interest in debating the subject. Unless you are a current political operative who can give me the inside scoop as to why this campaign finance reform will be different from all the other failed campaign finance efforts from Maine to Mexico, we are not going to have a meaningful argument on it. You will say there is too much money in politics. I will say that this is neither here nor there because there is no hope in hell of getting the money out. You will point to some obscure law elsewhere that is either unconstitutional at a federal level, or doesn't actually work the way you and Common Cause think it does. I will point to empirical evidence from the last 10,000 years of human existance that power breeds corruption. And round and round we go. None of the people I know who actually work in politics think that it will have much of an effect. I mean, they think that they're going to have to make changes in their fundraising style, but they don't think that it's actually going to alter the balance of power significantly -- except for the ads ban, which everyone expects to be struck down. I'm going to go with them on this one. 'Nuff said.
I will pass on a quote, however, from a source who insisted upon anonimity, but is eminently quotable: "The dirty secret of the environmental movement is that their biggest opponent on CAFE ain't Ford Motors -- it's the UAW." Which is logical and depressing, unless like me you're already pretty much of a cynic.
So instead of debating campaign finance reform, go read this terrific piece by Elizabeth Spiers on something we can all get behind -- venture capital financing.
Posted by Jane Galt at May 20, 2002 11:25 AM | TrackBack | Technorati inbound links