Money is not the root of all evil. I like it. Everyone I know likes it.
Money can be very helpful. They charge money at the movies, the cleaners, the grocery store. Of course, some of the things folks do to get money aren’t too kosher. Most Americans believe their representative in Congress has traded votes for money. Now that’s evil. It’s why people want to regulate money in politics. But the regulations haven’t worked.
Now enemies of the initiative process claim money is corrupting the people’s lawmaking and seek severe restrictions. That’s just silly. Unlike candidates, who can be bribed by contributions, initiatives are written down in black-and-white. Initiatives can’t change their legal wording after passage the way politicians discard campaign promises once in office.
Compare the initiative process to candidates. Even when initiative proponents outspend opponents by a two-to-one margin or more, most initiatives lose at the ballot box. Money doesn’t dictate the outcome.
But in candidate races, the bigger spenders win 96 percent of the time. Money’s an inanimate object. Money isn’t the problem, but power corrupting the individual. It’s when money buys our elected officials that we have a problem.
So, hands off the initiative process and let’s break up the power that corrupts our representatives with term limits.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.