Vermont Bar Journal, Vol. 40, No. 2 Spring 2014, Vol. 40, No. 1 | Page 22

Restoring Citizen Representation

mobilizing Americans to focus on this issue
of corruption.
As stated by Rootstrikers:9
Our government is corrupt. Not corrupt in any criminal sense. But corrupt in
a perfectly legal sense: special interests
bend the levers of power to benefit them
at the expense of the rest of us. Both parties are part of the problem. Both have
become dependent upon the campaign
funding of the tiniest slice of the American people—not to mention the funding
of corporations and other non-citizens.
That dependency is this corruption.
Only the people can force lasting change
on this broken system. That change begins with understanding: The people
must recognize that corruption is not
just one among many important problems. Corruption is the root problem that
makes solving the others so difficult.10
Mickey Edwards
Mickey Edwards, in his book The Parties Versus the People, published by Yale
University Press in 2012, speaks with passion, as a former Republican congressman,
about a political system so paralyzed by
partisanship it is almost incapable of placing national interest ahead of the blind
pursuit of political advantage. Edwards discusses and makes recommendations about
several possible improvements.
Thomas Mann and Norman Ornstein
The New York Times bestselling book It’s
Even Worse Than It Looks, published by
Basic Books in 2012, and written by Mann,
a senior fellow at The Brookings Institution, and Ornstein, a resident scholar at the
American Enterprise Institute, provides another insightful look at the problem. They
discuss the vehement adversity that exists
between our two political parties and the
effect of the rules governing their behavior
that make it extremely difficult for majorities to act. They also assign blame for this
adversity more heavily to the Republican
Party that, in their view, is implacably refusing to allow anything that might help the
Democrats politically, no matter the cost to
society.
Joseph Stiglitz
The Price of Inequality by Joseph E. Stiglitz, winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics, published by W.W. Norton & Company
in 2012, is a great look through an economist’s lens at the interaction of market forces and political machinations that underlie
the resulting inequality in America today.
Stiglitz shows how, over time, our politics
has shaped the market in ways that advantage those at the top at the expense of the
rest of society.
David Cay Johnston

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Free Lunch: How the Wealthiest Americans Enrich Themselves at Government Expense (and Stick You with the Bill) by David
Cay Johnston, a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter for The New York Times, and published by Penguin Books in 2007, provides
an in-depth look with many concrete examples of today’s government policies and
spending that reach deep into the wallets
of the many for the benefit of the wealthy
few.
Hedrick Smith
Who Stole the American Dream by Hedrick Smith, Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter
and Emmy Award-winning producer, published by Random House in 2013, chronicles how, over the past four decades, a
series of seismic changes dismantled the
American Dream. Smith reveals how pivotal laws and policies were altered while the
public wasn’t looking, why moderate politicians got shoved to the sidelines, and how
Wall Street wins politically by hiring over
1,400 former government officials as lobbyists.

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Vermont Bar Association Efforts

The VBA has gone on record in support
of national campaign reform. At our March
9, 2001 midwinter meeting, the membership passed a resolution supporting:
enactment by Congress of comprehensive laws to reform the financing of campaigns for elected federal office holders. At the least such reforms should include laws requiring increased disclosure, elimination of soft
money and provisions for voluntary
public financing of campaigns of candidates qualifying to run for the Senate and House of Representatives.
I introduced this resolution and it enjoyed
wide support within the VBA. Among those
supporting it were former Governor Phil
Hoff, then Secretary of State Deb Markowitz, current Attorney General Bill Sorrell, and John Downs, founding member
of Downs, Rachlin, and Martin, Vermont’s
largest law firm.
As I review this resolution today with
hindsight, I believe it needs to be strengthened, and made more comprehensive.
Need for Further Debate and Discussion

The scope of this article does not permit
a full discussion of the problem, but below
are a few of the concerns that have been
raised:
• The way campaigns are funded by a
tiny minority of wealthy funders is corrupting our national political system,
THE VERMONT BAR JOURNAL •