To the Editor:
Re “Drowning in Campaign Cash” (editorial, Oct. 31):
Special interests, emboldened by a Supreme Court decision on campaign spending, are investing increasingly larger sums to polarize politics. Their paid-for “free speech” ads deliver inflammatory sound bites appealing to emotion and fear, not sound thought.
We see innuendo, few facts and a simple agenda that hides the real motives of greed and power. This is a condition that will become chronic and make good government unworkable.
Let us remove special-interest money from government. Fund all campaigns, from local dogcatcher to president of the United States, through taxpayer dollars only—no other support permitted.
No candidate, no officeholder, would receive a dime from special interests and 501(c) groups.
Arthur H. Gunther
Blauvelt, N.Y., Oct. 31, 2010
To the Editor:
Your editorial “Drowning in Campaign Cash” is akin to complaining about the symptoms of a disease rather than investigating the pathology.
Money in politics preys on our fecklessness. The real problem—in spite of the billions we spend on education, 24-hour news and electronic everything—is a citizenry that is incapable of disciplined reasoning. Instead, Americans are moved by attack ads, innuendo and hyperbole.
Until we commit ourselves to the hard work of fact-checking and adopt an open-minded approach to political and social issues, we will get what we deserve.
Thomas M. Doran
Plymouth, Mich., Oct. 31, 2010
Keith Burgess-Jackson, J.D., Ph.D. 