Even as she denounces super PACs, she’s counting on two of them, Priorities USA Action and Correct the Record, to support her candidacy — a necessary evil, her campaign says. She’s also chin-deep in questionable financial activities, ranging from the soft-money scandals of her husband’s presidency to the current flap over contributions by foreigners and favor-seekers to the Clinton Foundation. Then there’s the matter of her plans to continue President Obama’s policy of opting out of the public-finance system; Obama’s abandonment of the system did as much as the Citizens United ruling to destroy the post-Watergate fixes.
Her advisers claim campaign-finance reforms will be at the top of her agenda, a sensible choice because of the deep resentment in the populace toward a political system rigged in favor of the wealthy. But she gives supporters little evidence that she’s genuine. Asked by The Post last month about the role of the pro-Clinton Priorities USA Action, Clinton shrugged her shoulders and said, “I don’t know.”
If she really thinks money is corrupting politics, she can take concrete steps right now. She could pledge to return immediately to the public finance system and call on pro-Clinton super PACs to cease and desist — if her Republican opponents will do the same. The Republicans won’t, of course, but then Clinton would have gained the moral high ground she now lacks. …DanaMilbank,WaPo
Get real! I’m no supporter of Hillary Clinton but Milbank’s tut-tut makes no sense. Just about every group dedicated to overturning Citizens United (and there’s a bunch of ’em) has my email address. But are they successful? Not yet. Maybe never. But that’s where the issue of campaign finance begins and ends — with the voter. How are we-the-voters to succeed? We do it with the one thing that’ll work and that’s economic and social boycott.
We can’t afford any more shrugs and “I don’t know.” Until we make a loud and clear effort to stop patronizing any group pouring millions into campaigns — and whether it’s the company that produces the brand of toilet paper we use or the oil powering the miles we cover in our cars — we need to get a lot smarter about the sources of campaign funding and a lot more active in making sure those faucets are turned off. That includes dropping support for non-profits that accept money from and confer a kind of social and political legitimacy on donors like the Kochs.
Painful. But gotta be done.
Cross-posted from Prairie Weather
Graphic via shutterstock.com