Campaign Finance

THE MOTTO of the animals in George Orwell's Animal Farm is “All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.” The irony, of course, stems from the fact that the animals started out trying to establish a completely equal system, but they failed miserably. The same can be said of campaign finance.

Reforms are generally aimed at the equality of voters, but the reality of campaign finance is that huge corporations and high-spending individual contributors have always been “more equal” than other voters. In addition to voter equality, campaign finance laws have been directed at stemming the rise of corruption. As a rule, efforts at campaign finance, like the efforts of George Orwell's animals, have failed miserably. After each attempt at reform, a ...