"... we should pressure elected officials to address corruption by passing legislation ... which would overhaul lobbying and ethics laws, increase transparency in campaign financing, and establish a process for citizen-funded elections."

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Political corruption is not a partisan issue
By Mike Stout, February 24, 2015

It appears that my last column, in which I shared my take on how a small class of economic elites has corrupted our political institutions, struck a nerve with readers. I received e-mails and Twitter messages that generally focused on two main themes. The first is that by focusing on the Koch brothers and Rex Sinquefield I was trying to make a partisan political point. The second, and more important theme, came from readers who asked what we can do to address the issue.

In regards to the first theme, I know there are economic elites who also support the Democratic Party. People like Warren Buffett and George Soros have spent large amounts of cash in support of Democratic candidates. That does nothing to disprove my point. In fact, it strengthens it.

The fact that both parties are complicit highlights that political corruption is systemic in nature. The way our elections are financed has drowned out the voice of all but the wealthiest Americans, regardless of party affiliation. This has been going on for years throughout both Democratic and Republican administrations.

Unless we eliminate the systemic corruption in our political and economic institutions, and restore opportunity for ALL Americans, these problems are only going to get worse. The good news is that corruption is not a partisan issue. A number of polls have shown that a majority of Americans, conservative and liberal, view political corruption as a problem.

In regards to the second theme, we need to pressure candidates running for local, statewide, and federal office to take a position on political corruption, by prioritizing it as a campaign issue. This would allow us to identify pro-reform candidates and vote for them. In an ideal world, journalists would lead the charge on this, though the fact that they value access over accuracy and prefer to cover partisan politics rather than public issues, especially at the national level, isn't encouraging.

In lieu of journalists taking on powerful interests we support anti-corruption activists, such as Lawrence Lessig, founder of MayDay.US, a crowd-funded SuperPAC seeking to "reduce the influence of money in politics by electing a Congress committed to reform in 2016."

At the local level we should encourage city council to amend the city charter so that outside interests aren't able to influence local elections. Where do the current crop of candidates for council stand on this? I have no idea because, as far as I know, they haven't been asked.

At the state level, we should ensure Republican state senator Rob Schaaf's Missouri Anti-Corruption Act gets added to the 2016 statewide ballot and make it a focus of the 2016 campaign. We should also encourage our elected officials to support HB 188, which was introduced by Republican Caleb Rowden. The legislation would strengthens the state's ethics and lobbying regulations.

At all levels, we should pressure elected officials to address corruption by passing legislation, such as the American Anti-Corruption Act, which would overhaul lobbying and ethics laws, increase transparency in campaign financing, and establish a process for citizen-funded elections.
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