While University of Wisconsin students scrounged for change to buy Ian’s Pizza, multi-billionaire Sheldon Adelson spent $93 million on the 2012 presidential election. The Citizens United case, which effectively eliminated many campaign finance limits on unions and corporations, has increasingly pushed corporations to call for lax tax stances, rather than policies that are good for the country. The U.S. Senate, meanwhile, took action this month, voting 79-18 to advance an amendment that would indefinitely rid the U.S. political process of outside money.
Republicans who stand against the amendment and favor less regulation of campaign finance scream of an attack on the freedom of speech. Theodore Olson, for example, writes in the Wall Street Journal that all voters “should rise up against politicians who want to dilute the Bill of Rights to perpetuate their tenure in office.” That seems to argue that funneling money to favorable candidates for personal gain is a fundamental right our framers had in mind when they wrote the First Amendment. But as Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders said in a speech last year, “Freedom of speech … does not mean the freedom to buy the United States government.”
This issue, however, shouldn’t be a partisan issue with each party slamming each other because of where they stand on the amendment. Rather, it is an issue of the fundamental American principle of one vote per citizen. As practically all University of Wisconsin students have reached the legal voting age and are close to the state Capitol, politics hit much closer to home. Whether a political science student or not, we all become increasingly familiar with the rudiments of the political process. We all grow up with a similar sense of patriotism, placing our mighty nation in the top tier of the world. Now, as the latest young and eager citizens, we must transfer our best knowledge of the political process into voting behavior.
If a billionaire has access to fund unlimited and obscene amounts of money to campaigns, it rightfully appears as though his or her influence on government is greater than the average citizen, especially the average poor college student. Sixty-eight percent of Wisconsin graduates have an average of $28,102 in student debt, according to The Project On Student Debt. We enter society already at a financial disadvantage — not to mention without a secure job in place — and if we can’t afford the average million dollar buy-in to best secure our vote, then there goes our voice.
Although the funding amendment will almost certainly fail due to lack of Republican support in the House of Representatives, campaign finance is an issue that will not go away. It is our duty as citizens of the nation to make the change we want to see. I hope, for the future of UW students, that we will all take a stand against unlimited campaign funding.
Alex Mohney (alexmohney
