H as the Clinton presidency been a grave setback for liberalism? Or a necessary, if wrenching, re-centering? We have debated this question in our pages, and historians will long argue the issue. One must await the results of the 1996 election to provide a more complete answer. However, here is a look at both sides […]
Money, Politics, and Power
Posted inMoney, Politics, and Power
Damage Report
T he past two years have humbled both liberals and conservatives-or should have. The 1992 election, liberals hoped, would set in motion a new cycle of progressivism. It didn’t. After the 1994 election, the new conservative leaders of Congress expected to stage a revolution. They didn’t. First President Clinton failed to secure the bolder aspects […]
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Popping Contributions
Last year conservatives tried and failed to destroy the effectiveness of food and drug regulation. Now they say they want only modest FDA reforms. Watch out.
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Reform Gets Rolling
With campaign finance reform stalled in Washington, the real work of cleaning up American politics has shifted to the states. Look at what’s happened in Vermont, Massachusetts, and—of all places—Arizona.
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Reform Beyond the Beltway
While Congress is deadlocked, real campaign finance reform is moving ahead in the states.
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Of our Time: Democracy v. Dollar
D emocracy, many people have said, is a matter of faith, but why, dear Lord, must our faith be tested so often? Lately, the role of money in political campaigns has been mocking our civic creed. “Here the people rule,” we are taught, and we would like to think so. But if the voters (and […]
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Senator Dole’s Greatest Harvest
How long-cultivated interests help advance the Majority Leader’s political fortunes — and circumvent campaign finance limits.
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Watch What You Wish For
In pursuit of campaign finance reform, many seek to reverse the precedent established by the Supreme Court in 1975, protecting campaign expenditures as free speech. But if the Court’s ruling is overturned, the general protections of the First Amendment might be severely narrowed.
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Behind the Numbers: Tilt!
The partisan imbalance in campaign cash.
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Below the Beltway: Goo-Goos Versus Populists
S ince the election, almost every group in town has been meeting to develop a position on campaign finance reform. The Brookings Institution’s Tom Mann has organized a working group that holds luncheons and has its own web page (www.brookings.edu/gs/campaign/home.htm). Organizations from Common Cause to Citizen Action are holding meetings of what they call the […]