Absent reform

Put aside for a moment your fervid opinion about gun control and violent movies and temporarily overcome your indifference toward campaign-finance reform. The rot at the core of political debate was on full display in the House yesterday and to miss the message it conveyed is to miss the point of the current system of politics by blackmail.

At issue in the House was the worthy topic of youth violence and what, if anything, Congress needed to and could do about it. Among the measures under consideration were a proposal to reduce access to sexual or violent materials in video games or movies, and one to extend background checks to gun shows, an idea previously passed by the Senate.

Both of these proposals were being torn apart, according to news reports, but not because they were flawed, because better alternatives were available or because House members did not think the problem merited a legislative response. They were, instead, not to the liking of the entertainment-industry lobby on one side and the gun lobby on the other. Though they cannot vote, these lobbyists can drop notes to their favorite members of Congress, reminding them of the wonderful times they have had together at the summer barbecue, during that round of golf, watching those dollars in the campaign fund add up. The postscript to the notes is clear: Sure hate for all of that to end, especially the money part, all over some minor vote. Sure hate to use that money campaigning against you.

It is not just these two issues or these two lobbies, of course, and it is not merely a Republican or Democratic problem. The bipartisan cash race in running for office makes politicians vulnerable to the entreaties of the few when they are supposed to be representing the many. The antidote, a vigorous version of campaign-finance reform, has yet to be administered, however, in part because some key politicians don’t want it and largely because the public cares about the issue for at best a day or two each year.

By allowing lobbyists to control so much of the debate, members of Congress are making themselves and the people they represent irrelevant to the legislative process. The final dispostion of these two bills will be decided in the next couple of days; the problem of how they were influenced will remain until campaign-finance reform is passed.