European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - August 5, 1987, Darmstadt, Hesse Page 10 columns the stars and stripes wednesday. Angus s. 1987 David Broder Money not the Only corrupting Force in politics i was listening in a presidential candidate it happened in be Joe Biden but it could have been any one or Hern Lalk inc other noon. He mentioned an All Day meeting with some economists and repealed some of the ideas he had gotten from them. And Sud Denly was reminded of a Peculiar slant in the cover age of politics in this country. Suppose Biden had said he had spent the Day with his big contributors. The reporters around inc table would have been scribbling notes furiously pummel ing him with questions about what the Tat cat Spe Cial interest Guys wanted in return. Bui because he was talking about idea merchant no one blinked an Eye. When it comes to campaigns Dollar contributions arc deemed to be potentially or actually corrupting. The View is that they need to be limited As the Senate is again struggling to do or at least made subject to strict rules of disclosure. Bui no such taint attaches to other vital Campaign ingredients notably manpower and ideas. People who make their contributions by volunteering to walk a precinct or As with Biden s group and its counterparts by offering to write a position paper or conduct a Brief ing for a candidate arc deemed to be performing a generous act of Good citizenship. Why is it dangerous to contribute dollars but not to contribute labor or thoughts the answer has to lie in the Eye of the beholder. When it comes to influence on policy few to Trad William f. Buckley or. Seriously maintain that a 11,000 More leverage than the person who drafts a speech for a contender or gives him his briefing on Trade policy or inc persian Gulf. Bui the people who write about politics like my self arc far closer in spirit to Ibe briefer and the Glosl writers than we arc to the big contributors. So when organisations like common cause which pro Vides the lobbying muscle behind inc recurrent drive for Campaign Reform sound the alarm we in the press lend to respond. Frank j. Sorauf a professor at the University of Minnesota has just demonstrated that Point nicely in an article in political science quarterly. He analyses news coverage not editorials on three recent Campaign finance developments in inc new York times los Angeles times and Washington Post. In Evev instance he makes a convincing Case that the coverage reflected not a partisan or an ideological Bias but a particular Strain of american thought the progressive tradition that was a powerful Force in Pur politics from the 1890s to the 1920s. The progressives political scientist Austin Ranney once wrote believed that the great enemies of society Are the big political machines the business trusts and the other special interests that try to Advance in car selfish goals at the Public s expense by buying elections and corrupting Public officials faded As a political Force so years ago but it remains Atic and Well in american journalism and in Many self styled Reform organizations. The progressives belief in the corrupting Power of Money is the Assumption underlying most of the current efforts Ted by common cause and endorsed by Many Lead ing newspapers to Cut Down on contributions by interest group political action commit i pm pics. To introduce Public financing of congressional campaigns and to place ceilings on Overall Campaign spending. Reformer and journalists tend 10 share thai progressive tradition. Reformers and journalists also know our influence derives from our presentation of information and ideas not from our wealth. We May he right when we say that dollars corrupt politics while ideas enlighten it. But there is enough of a coincidence Between our assets and our arguments to justify a de Gree of scepticism. 1 happen to think that the rapidly rising costs of Many Senate races do justify an Effort to slow Down this form of political inflation at least temporarily. I agree with sen. David born d-okla., that a limit on the share of the Campaign budgets pics can provide would have the healthy effect of pushing candidates to seek More individual contributions in their Home slates. But there s an excess of moralist in the common cause and newspaper preachings on this topic a pluralistic society properly should allow Many channels by which people can seek to influence decision makers. And you can Sec More than a tinge of intellectual elitism in inc notion Ilia Only the Money Channel corrupts. Cd Wathom ton pol or Roll j Gid up americans can f see Forest because of fhe frees As so often happens our preoccupation with inc Trees causes us to lose sight of the Forest which is the soviet Union. We have been going on and on now for week and months engaging in Ristic constitutional questions. But what was the problem in the first instance the contras. And Why arc the contras a problem because they need help in order to prevail. Against what against the sandinista. And Why do we care thai the sandinista Are running Nicaragua because they arc engaged in constructing an aggressive military Force whose purpose is to disrupt democratic life in Central America and then in Mexico and in South America. How can a country As Small As Nicaragua population about 3 million possibly dream so imperialistic a dream because the soviet Union is backing the whole Enterprise. Cuba has Only about 10 million people but it has troops in Angola Mozambique and Ethiopia. It has attempted sedition in Bolivia Colombia and Venezuela. And through Nicaragua it has ventured into Al Salvador and Honduras. All of this is made possible by arms that flow in through Cuba which gets them from the soviet Union. Meanwhile we Are talking blissfully about the reduction of nuclear weapons in Europe ii is a dra Matic lesson we arc learning nothing from. Theoretically we ukr a Small step toward peace in Europe while a hemisphere away in a banana Republic in Central America we Are preoccupied by the damage bring done. No that in t quite right. Some americans Are pre occupied with the damage being done. Other Ameri cans Are not preoccupied with the damage being done by the sandinista but arc very preoccupied with those americans who Are preoccupied with he possibility of inc establishment of another Warsaw pact Power in latin America. Not bad what Gorbachev has managed 10 do Vii a few Hundred million dollars which presumably under Zero option he can recoup by retiring his ss-20s, leaving him Only his Ssiss 23s and 24s. Meanwhile we Are preparing to conclude our big Deal inf treaty then on to another Summit and we will glasnost each Oiler with camaraderie and understanding. Linkage is out of favor As you will have noted. It is not at All Clear Why it should be so hut when or. Reagan rescinded the agricultural embargo shortly after assuming office. Image began ils Retreat even under the fancy name of asymmetrical retaliation. But the Retreat of linkage is a Retreat of the Ecsi for so simple a reason As that the inventory of weapons we Are willing to use is relatively limited. Whereas inc cent Fwy d backstops Jeze. On soviet Union is delighted through its satellites to mate trouble in Ethiopia and Angola and Cuba and Nicaragua and directly in Afghanistan we have Al ways specialized in counters Lionts. When the soviet Union strikes out at Berlin we defend Bellin up until 1961. When we act East Berlin go. When it strikes at Korea we defend Korea up to the j8th parallel. When it strikes in Vietnam we de fend Vietnam until we run of of steam after that we leave it to the boat people to sorry about. The soviet Union meanwhile uses any weapon it chooses to use anyplace in any Way. Occasionally it suffers from linkage Jimmy Carter did t let the athletes go to the olympics in Moscow in 1980. In retaliation for Afghanistan. But More often than not. The communists gel away with it by sheer tenacity As also by inc predictable failure of the Wesl to consolidate ils . Consider. Suppose that Ronald Reagan were loan ounce next week that All discussions having to do with the reduction of nuclear weapons in Western Europe would be suspended until after inc soviet Union had demilitarized Nicaragua and Cuba. There is very Little sense the president might say in worrying about the in Militari Avion or the Eastern hemisphere when we have not yet succeeded in Demilita izing our own hemisphere. A dial then would happen1 the european peace Niks would grow very very w Roth. And huge Domenic Prev surfs would build. Alt the talk would be about Rea Gan s intransigence not about the intransigence of the soviet Union. This is the ultimate weapon of the totalitarian society Hal disposes of apocalyptic weapons it has inc capacity to distort perspectives. To talk grandly about go snort and an insignificant reduction in nuclear inventory while All of America sum at the television set to determine who said what when to whom about arms for the contras never pausing to ask Why we need arms for the contras
