Money politics

Al Gore writes:

After a long and detailed review of all the polling information and careful testing of potential TV commercials, the anticipated response from my opponent's campaign and the planned response to the response, my campaign advisers made a recommendation and prediction that surprised me with its specificity: "If you run this ad at this many 'points' [a measure of the size of the advertising buy], and if Ashe responds as we anticipate, and then we purchase this many points to air our response to his response, the net result after three weeks will be an increase of 8.5 percent in your lead in the polls."

I authorized the plan and was astonished when three weeks later my lead had increased by exactly 8.5 percent. Though pleased, of course, for my own campaign, I had a sense of foreboding for what this revealed about our democracy. Clearly, at least to some degree, the "consent of the governed" was becoming a commodity to be purchased by the highest bidder. The Assault on Reason quoted in the NYRB by Michael Tomasky

Gore was writing about his first Senate race, in 1984. I suspect his, and our, cynicism will have grown since then. The growing gap between politician and ordinary person is self-enlarging. Our non-involvement in politics enhances the role of the Public Relations people and lobbyists, which creates yet more voter apathy.

One of the advantages of a Social Policy Bond regime is that it would express its goals in terms of outcomes that are meaningful to real people, as distinct from corporations and their agents. Transparency - consulting with voters about their goals - would be built into the system from the start.