"VOTE"? I don't think George Will actually knows what the word "vote" means. He appears to believe that it has something to do with purchases. So since I, say, don't actually buy cholesterol-lowering drugs for myself, I am registering a "vote" against their existence. Or since many taxpayers forget or don't care enough to donate three dollars to a public financing system that doesn't work, they are against public financing. Poppycock. It's no secret that we lack an actual public financing system in this country, and anyone mulling over whether to check that box would probably remember that it doesn't appear to fund any program that anybody uses. Last year, both party's presidential candidates declined public financing: It simply doesn't offer enough money to compete. Is it any wonder taxpayers decline to throw money down that hole? Meanwhile, the polling isn't confused in the least. A full three-quarters of Americans support serious public financing for campaigns, which is to say that a full three-quarters of Americans support an end to politicians spending half their time dialing-for-dollars and the other half meeting with lobbyists for bribes. Will believes that voters, totally disgusted by an obviously corrupt and deranged political system, are not checking their box because they want Jack Abramoff and his ilk to continue roaming the halls of Congress. I'd order the causality very, very differently.
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Ezra Klein
