Time to reform money in politics

Our democracy was once the pride and joy of Americans and the envy of our world. Wars, crises, scandals and elections could come and go, but democracy would always endure.

Or will it? A growing majority of us have deepening doubts, and that in and of itself is a crisis.

This is not about the great debate of ideas. Nor is it even about the deepening partisan divide and its devastating plague of extremism, intolerance and rejection of moderate consensus solutions (though a major contributor). Democracy can survive both.

This is much deeper. It is about a loss of faith in our government’s ability to work through it all for the common good.

Ask virtually any American (much less the rest of the world). Red-blue, young-old, any region, political persuasion or other difference, we believe by unprecedented 80 percent-plus margins that our government has been captured by narrow special interests that have debased our core principle of consent of the governed. And that the main culprit is money, the lubricant in a pay-to-play system that subverts presidents and members of Congress and excludes the vast majority of us.

Unfortunately the reality largely follows our beliefs, as I saw firsthand during my own service in Congress. When first elected, I was advised by insiders to spend 25-50 percent of my time in D.C. not on legislating but actively fundraising (“dialing-for-dollars”) and meeting with contribution-prone lobbyists.

When I served on the Budget Committee, responsible for a multitrillion-dollar federal budget, I was told “but that committee’s no good for fundraising.” Leadership on both sides of the aisle too often went not to the most capable but the best at raising and distributing largesse.

That reality is getting far worse. Major court decisions and inaction by co-opted executive and legislative branches have dramatically increased the amounts and sources of money while concealing its true origins in “soft” or “dark” contributions. The result has been not only plunging public confidence, but real-world decisions negatively impacting Americans on everyday concerns like energy prices, food quality, health care costs, credit card fees and more.

It is tempting to say it’s hopeless and we can’t do anything. But that need not and cannot be an option.

I am a member of the ReFormers Caucus, a group of now 180-plus former U.S. representatives, senators and governors of both parties who know the danger firsthand and are committed to action (www.issueone.org). We believe that this is a real crisis, our lawmakers are no longer free to lead, we all pay a price for dysfunction, outside of D.C. this is not partisan, and we can solve it.

We are not out to eliminate lobbying and money from politics. We believe that with appropriate safeguards, both are a right and assist good government.

We do, though, advocate for common-sense reforms in five overall categories: Everyone participates (encouraging small donors); everyone knows (requiring immediate disclosure and full transparency); everyone plays by the rules (strengthening conflicts of interest and ethics rules); everyone is held accountable (strengthening enforcement) and everyone has a voice (confirming Congress’ authority to govern money in politics).

Fellow travelers in Congress today have formed their own Reformers Caucus and introduced bipartisan bills to advance these goals.

Above all, we aim to place this crisis at the top of the agenda in the critical congressional elections upcoming this year. We want every voter to ask each and all candidates what they will do about it and to judge them by their answers.

Confucius said: “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” We got ourselves into this mess and we can and must fix it, step by step.

Ed Case served Hawaii in the U. S. Congress from 2002 to 2007. He is senior vice president and chief legal officer of Outrigger Enterprises Group.