Skip to content
Search

Latest Stories

Top Stories

Three pillars of conservative thought demand a constitutional curb on campaign finance

Three pillars of conservative thought demand a constitutional curb on campaign finance

"Our government must be solely accountable to the governed — we, the American people," argues Jim Rubens.

mj0007/iStock/Getty Images Plus

Rubens was a Republican state senator in New Hampshire from 1994 to 1998. He's a board member of American Promise, which seeks to amend the Constitution to allow tighter controls on money in politics.

This month I shared the stage at American Promise's citizen leadership conference with Rep. Jamie Raskin, a liberal Democrat from Maryland. We differ on policy, but the two of us join most every American in agreeing on this deepest fundamental: Our government must be solely accountable to the governed — we, the American people.

To this end, to protect and preserve the world's oldest democratic republic, we will break the suffocating grip of concentrated big-money. We will get a 28th Amendment added to our cherished and ever-more-perfect Constitution.

Democrats are overwhelmingly on board. Two-thirds of Republican voters are on board. Now is the time to get Republicans in Congress to join us in large numbers. To do so we must persuade their most conservative constituents. And we can do that because big-money corruption is undermining three critical conservative priorities: capitalism, low taxes and federalism.


Our Founders unleashed capitalism — specifically, free-market capitalism — giving us greater wealth, progress and well-being worldwide than in all human history. But the current system of legalized political corruption has mutated free-market capitalism into crony capitalism.

Sign up for The Fulcrum newsletter

Under crony capitalism, government picks economic winners and losers by doling out tax breaks, loan guarantees, regulatory favors and contract awards. Instead of delivering better products and services to customers, business competes by buying influence or submitting to de facto extortion in Washington.

The result? Innovation and new business formation have dropped to historic lows. Financial engineering is in. Capital investment and long-term research and development are out. Crony capitalism is why we have broadband and cellular dead zones, the world's highest drug prices, ethanol subsidies, too-big-to-fail banks and multibillion-dollar weapons systems that don't work.

It's why young and non-white voters — who will be the majority in a generation — now favor socialism over capitalism. The pay-to-play influence economy — not the Squad, not MSNBC — is the single most direct threat to free-market capitalism.

Now, conservatives come in several flavors, from small-l libertarians and social conservatives to right-populists and internationalists. We fight internally over abortion, trade, immigration and war. But one pillar of conservative thought connects all of us: keeping taxes low. And sustainably low taxes come from sustainably low spending.

Conservatives and progressives have both learned the hard way that big money does not really care about right-versus-left philosophy. Big money is united behind an endless push for more spending and tax loopholes for their favored programs.

And big money is driving big spending in a big way — because crony capitalism is so much more profitable than slugging it out in a competitive marketplace. A study by Open The Books published in Forbes magazine found that, for each dollar spent lobbying, the top 10 spenders got $1,000 in taxpayer-funded grants and contracts. A Sunlight Foundation study found something similar: For each dollar spent on lobbying and political contributions, politically active corporations received $760 in tax breaks, loan guarantees and contracts.

Pay-to-play corruption is why we're entering a time of trillion-dollar-a-year deficits. It's why Washington has recklessly loaded crushing debt service onto the backs of young people. It's why we've fattened special interests and starved spending on the infrastructure and blue-sky research that power long-term prosperity.

In the end, the bill will come due in the form of whopping tax increases. We can draw a straight line from the corrupt, big-money system to short-termism, twisted monetary policy, unsustainable spending commitments and punishing future tax increases.

To tackle this, conservatives want to amend the Constitution to mandate a balanced federal budget amendment; 28 of the necessary 38 states are on board for ratification. Conservatives need more blue states to get there. And we need red states at American Promise, where we count 20 states on board for amending the Constitution to allow more campaign finance regulation.

Our shared goals, ending high-tax fiscal insanity and big-money corruption, are joined at the hip. You can envision a beautiful red-blue reformers marriage.

In the past three years I've met with conservative state legislators from several states advocating support for a 28th Amendment. They are really angry at Tom Steyer, Michael Bloomberg, big unions and even fellow conservative Sheldon Adelson for pouring billions in from far away to buy elections. In swing presidential states, tight congressional races and even state legislative contests, a handful of billionaires from San Francisco, Manhattan and (probable) Saudi Arabia are tipping the scales.

When I ran for the Senate three years ago, total spending on the contest was $132 million — 95 percent of it from out of state. This is absolutely not what the Founders intended.

Because the hollowed-out media concentrate coverage on the candidates with the big money, the home-grown and locally funded candidates stay invisible. Voters are overwhelmed with a blizzard of ads paid for with "dark money" and filled with unrebutted lies. Debate is narrowed, voters get even more cynical and the issues get nationalized.

A conservative favorite from our Bill of Rights, the 10th Amendment reserves to the states and people all powers not expressly granted by the Constitution to the federal government. It guarantees respect for local preferences and political space to test and replicate successful policies. It makes the states our laboratories of democracy, and gives our form of government a unique structural advantage among nations. The corrupt, big-money system poses a direct threat to federalism, one of our strongest protections against the sort of tyranny that's spawned in the dark swamps of concentrated power.

In the end, conservatives in great numbers will join our movement because the pay-to-play, big-money system is killing free-market capitalism, exploding spending and debt and concentrating power in Washington. So those who want a 28th Amendment should have absolute confidence that Republicans have principled and powerful motivations to get aboard.

Read More

"Voter Here" sign outside of a polling location.

"Voter Here" sign outside of a polling location.

Getty Images, Grace Cary

Stopping the Descent Toward Banana Republic Elections

President Trump’s election-related executive order begins by pointing out practices in Canada, Sweden, Brazil, and elsewhere that outperform the U.S. But it is Trump’s order itself that really demonstrates how far we’ve fallen behind. In none of the countries mentioned, or any other major democracy in the world, would the head of government change election rules by decree, as Trump has tried to do.

Trump is the leader of a political party that will fight for control of Congress in 2026, an election sure to be close, and important to his presidency. The leader of one side in such a competition has no business unilaterally changing its rules—that’s why executive decrees changing elections only happen in tinpot dictatorships, not democracies.

Keep ReadingShow less
"Vote" pin.
Getty Images, William Whitehurst

Most Americans’ Votes Don’t Matter in Deciding Elections

New research from the Unite America Institute confirms a stark reality: Most ballots cast in American elections don’t matter in deciding the outcome. In 2024, just 14% of eligible voters cast a meaningful vote that actually influenced the outcome of a U.S. House race. For state house races, on average across all 50 states, just 13% cast meaningful votes.

“Too many Americans have no real say in their democracy,” said Unite America Executive Director Nick Troiano. “Every voter deserves a ballot that not only counts, but that truly matters. We should demand better than ‘elections in name only.’”

Keep ReadingShow less
Why America’s Elections Will Never Be the Same After Trump
text
Photo by Dan Dennis on Unsplash

Why America’s Elections Will Never Be the Same After Trump

Donald Trump wasted no time when he returned to the White House. Within hours, he signed over 200 executive orders, rapidly dismantling years of policy and consolidating control with the stroke of a pen. But the frenzy of reversals was only the surface. Beneath it lies a deeper, more troubling transformation: presidential elections have become all-or-nothing battles, where the victor rewrites the rules of government and the loser’s agenda is annihilated.

And it’s not just the orders. Trump’s second term has unleashed sweeping deportations, the purging of federal agencies, and a direct assault on the professional civil service. With the revival of Schedule F, regulatory rollbacks, and the targeting of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion programs, the federal bureaucracy is being rigged to serve partisan ideology. Backing him is a GOP-led Congress, too cowardly—or too complicit—to assert its constitutional authority.

Keep ReadingShow less
One Lesson from the Elections: Looking At Universal Voting

A roll of "voted" stickers.

Pexels, Element5 Digital

One Lesson from the Elections: Looking At Universal Voting

The analysis and parsing of learned lessons from the 2024 elections will continue for a long time. What did the campaigns do right and wrong? What policies will emerge from the new arrangements of power? What do the parties need to do for the future?

An equally important question is what lessons are there for our democratic structures and processes. One positive lesson is that voting itself was almost universally smooth and effective; we should applaud the election officials who made that happen. But, many elements of the 2024 elections are deeply challenging, from the increasingly outsized role of billionaires in the process to the onslaught of misinformation and disinformation.

Keep ReadingShow less