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Campaign finance reform a farce

Campaign finance reform, an issue that means nothing to the American people's lives, is currently the issue driving the most significant campaign of this century: the 2000 presidential race.

Why is this a problem? There's no such thing as campaign finance reform. It's the greatest political fabrication of the twentieth century, and politicians everywhere are using it to make themselves look like something else that does not exist: honorable politicians.

Politicians like Arizona Senator John McCain, who has put this non-issue at the forefront of his campaign, are fooling Americans into thinking campaign finance will be reformed if they are elected to federal office.

Politicians like McCain are fooling Americans because campaign funding is so complicated that no one understands it anyway. Because figures like McCain keep spouting its importance, most Americans do not realize that campaign finance reform is, quite frankly, a non-issue.

Let me lay it out in terms that make sense. Politicians are people who think they are all-powerful, so let's call them Supermen.

Their one weakness is money, particularly soft money and independent expenditures (money from major corporations and special interest groups that is supposed to only fund party-building activities or advertising). These kinds of money have the power to kill a politician, or at least his campaign, just like kryptonite.

And the "special interest groups," or the organizations that are so powerful because they control the source of the money, are like Lex Luthor.

We all know that when Lex Luthor used kryptonite to control Superman, he was actually more powerful than the red-suited man himself.

We all know that special interests, such as the National Rifle Association, are influencing policy more than elected officials because they have the potent green substance that controls politicians.

Clearly, there is no way to get "special interest money out of politics," as McCain and other politicians who think they are Superman like to claim they can do.

The problem is that the Federal Elections Commission, the government agency that is supposed to regulate what kind of money funds campaigns, is about as powerful as Lois Lane. The FEC is supposed to make sure that only "hard money," or individual contributions, are the only funds supporting campaigns. Right now, the most anyone can contribute is $2,000 to a congressional campaign and $5,000 to a presidential campaign per election cycle

A legitimate, feasible solution for cleaning up polluted campaign funding would be to raise these FEC limits, which were established over 25 years ago, to a figure that is more appropriate for modern campaign costs.

This, of course, is a solution that we never hear politicians advocate. All we hear is that "special interests" need to be eliminated from the political process. Politicians do not care to raise the FEC limit because it is essentially worthless; the funding they desperately need is the soft money and independent expenditures that special interests provide.

Oddly, politicians are forcing us to vilify the very special interest groups they depend on to get elected.

True, most powerful special interest groups are typically wealthy, enormous corporations such as Phillip-Morris, or gun-toting fascists such as the NRA. But the most powerful special interest group is the American Association of Retired Persons who are not extremists, nor are they particularly wealthy. They are, more importantly, organized.

The basis of the American political process is people organizing in order to bring about certain changes or put certain programs into effect. Getting rid of special interests will never happen, just as Superman never managed to kill Lex Luthor. Money is inherently evil in the political process; no amount of reform can erase this reality.

Superman will always be controlled by the evil kryptonite.