All of us who support true campaign finance reform must defeat this amendment. The Doolittle Substitute not only would block any new efforts to reform campaign finance, it would actually repeal the few successful reforms that we passed in the 1970s. The Court was not only insightful in that statement, but prescient as well. In the 23 years since Buckley was issued, confidence has eroded because the Watergate-era reforms were insufficient. Turnout in elections is at all time lows.
Polls show public confidence in government at record lows, as well.
The fundamentals of our democratic system are at risk, and this Congress must not be so complacent as to ignore the evidence that is all around us. But it is not supposed to be a marketplace that belongs to the highest bidder. The very way we talk about campaigns shows how far we have drifted from our Founding Fathers' ideas. But that's an advertising concept, not a civics concept. The Shays-Meehan bill and the existing contribution limitations are reasonable, fair, Constitutional and vitally necessary in a modern democracy.