The Dogmas of the Modern-Day Mugwumps
Miller, Stephen
"The Dogmas of the Modern-Day Mugwumps"
...The campaign finance laws, it is said, favor incumbents and cut the level of grassroots participation in elections...
...In less than four years Common Cause became one of the biggest, best organized, and best financed lobbies in Washington--second only in influence, according to one study, to the AFL-CIO...
...According to Rep...
...Douglas J. Feith RADICAL SHEIKS What stake have we in wooing "moderate" oil regimes that exploit us economically and politically ? President Carter has assured the country that he will defend the "vital interests" of the United States in the Persian Gulf region "by any means necessary, including military force...
...Common Cause implies that all such changes of view constitute a betrayal of the public trust, but in The Federalist Publius assumed that men would change their views on many issues when they became national legislators...
...During the ten years of its existence, Common Cause has rigidly stuck to its party line...
...interests in the Middle East, President Carter told a press gathering that the United States will not be able to defend these interests after all without the consent of the local oil states...
...During the Gilded Age, when the laws governing the political process were much less stringent than they are today, no "great decisions" were made as a result of corruption...
...Common Cause continually implies that those who question its recommendations do so only for narrowly self-interested reasons...
...As Gardner said: "We've made astonishing gains . . . . We've opened up the bill-drafting sessions of the House of Representatives, which is just a profound change in their way of operating...
...The nation is hurt," Gardner said, "when great decisions are made by venal men, concerned chiefly with private gain...
...We cannot say, though, that Common Cause has always been on the wrong side of issues it has chosen to lobby on...
...But Common Cause is not only concerned about the growth of corporate PACs...
...The average gift from a single corporate committee was less than $500...
...and the situation is getting worse, for special interests are more powerful than ever before, owing to the growth of political action committees (PACs), especially corporate political action committees...
...In fact, Common Cause shares two key adjectives with the proponents of referenda, who are given to saying that direct democracy will make government more "accountable" and more "responsive...
...After all, lack of access, unlikely as this prospect may be, could cause economic dislocations with calamitous consequences...
...We don't define 'the public interest' in the sense that one group represents it while others don't...
...And under the terms of the Freedom of Information Act, the FBI and the CIA are required to process and occasionally ship documents to recLuesters from Communist and Third World countries...
...Can such preaching be squared with President Carter's new line on Soviet expansionism and the U.S...
...Catering to the region's oil-producing countries, it turns out, not only fosters their ability to threaten U.S...
...Writing about the 1976 presidential campaign, Gardner said: "Message to candidates: No rhetoric...
...Yet how can "all other groups debate their validity" when Common Cause says that those who do so are venal and unprincipled men...
...In 1970 it lobbied against the seniority system in Congress and for public financing of elections...
...Thomas Foley of Washington, who is chairman of the House Democratic Caucus, "the contributions follow the positions, not the other way around...
...published / A P R I L 1 9 8 0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ~ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Stephen Miller THE DOGMAS OF THE MODERN-DAY MUGWUMPS A f t e r t e n y e a r s o f devotion to t h e " p u b l i c i n t e r e s t , " Common Cause marches e v e r onward to t h e Land of P e r f e c t Reform...
...At times Common Cause seems to back away from such a self-righteous stance...
...Urging the passage of a bill to provide federal financing of congressional campaigns, Gardner said: "This is a historic opportunity for members of the House of Representatives to rise above self-interest...
...Explaining this conclusion, the President said, "I don't think it would be accurate for me to claim that at this time, or in the future, we expect to have enough military strength and enough military presence there to defend the region unilaterally...
...The very fact of sitting in a deliberative body composed of men from throughout the country would make them "superior to local prejudices...
...And Rep...
...Many congressmen, then, are responsive, but are they acting as national legislators when they spend so much time soliciting the views of their constituents...
...Commenting on the House Administration Committee's decision not to report a bill to provide federal funding for House general election campaigns, Michael Cole (Common Cause's legislative director) said that their action is "a legacy of the Wayne Hays era--a group of people who have resisted reform...
...Common Cause, however, equates its own purity of principle with advocating the truth...
...Because the money raised by PACs is given to individuals, not to parties, congressmen have become relatively independent of parties and less inclined to vote along party lines...
...In the 1978 election, few candidates received more than 5 percent of their campaign expenses from any one PAC or group of related PACs...
...Since the violation of Afghanistan, the Carter administration talks as if it grasps the Soviet threat to this interest and will arrange to defy it...
...Several congressmen have complained of the increasing difficulty they have in performing their function as mediators and one has argued that a preoccupation with clean government has worked to the advantage of those who may be rigorously honest but not particularly inventive in addressing the issues of the day...
...And now that you can, it seems insane that they ever thought they could do public business secretly...
...Fear and favor, as it were, govern U.S...
...The issue of campaign financing is of some importance, but it does not possess the significance that Common Cause has given it...
...What the Founding Fathers wanted was a new kind of patriotism, a patriotism that abjured motive-hunting, a patriotism that recognized the need for accommodating the views of the numerous special interests that would inevitably arise in an extended republic, a patriotism that acknowledged the importance of an elite corps of national legislators whose "enlightened views and virtuous sentiments" would render them "superior...to schemes of injustice...
...Common Cause is not necessarily on the right side of any question, but neither is it necessarily on the wrong side...
...The distinctive nature of the American form of republican government, Publius says in Federalist 63, "lies in the total exclusion of the people in their collective capacity," from any share in the government...
...interest in oil from the Persian Gulf...
...Continuous accountability" makes it difficult for representatives to become national legislators--to be educated by the office they hold...
...As a lobbyist for open government, Common Cause has been very successful...
...But it still shows no defiance toward the region's oil sheiks, though they continually threaten the same interest...
...in 1979, when it registered with Congress as a"citizens lobby," the first two issues it listed as its "legislative interest" were open government and campaign financing...
...Trips home are both expensive and timeconsuming...
...In a recent pamphlet, How Money Talks in Congress, Common Cause says there is a clear correlation between the way some congressmen voted on certain bills and the campaign contributions they received...
...According to both Gardner and Cohen, "process determines substance...
...in 1979 Gardner and David Cohen, the president of Common Cause, spoke of the "Special In...
...In the past five years the number of lobbyists in Washington has almost doubled--from 8.000 to 15,000 people...
...Both the lobbying disclosure bill and a bill to extend public financing to House general election campaigns have not fared well in congressional committees, so that there is some question whether they will become law...
...Thus the percentage of support any one PAC provides for a candidate's campaign has remained constant...
...Contributions from all sources have increased, for campaigns generally have become more expensive...
...Godkin, his Mugwump forebear, that "the diminution of political corruption is the great question of our time...
...In 1974, there were 89 corporate PACs, which contributed $2.5 million to congressional campaigns,, whereas in 1978 there were 646 corporate PACs, which contributed $8.8 million...
...Whatever their fate, the fact that they have encountered difficulties suggests that there is a growing dissatisfaction with "good government" reforms, perhaps because many of the laws that have been passed have had unintended consequences...
...According to Gardner, Common Cause has introduced " a new ingredient into the political system, a means of assuring continuous accountability to the citizen--a means of voting between elections...
...it is concerned about the growth of PACs in general...
...The difference between 'a' and 'the' is very important...
...The point of these attacks is clear: Disinterested citizens know what mix of policies is in the public interest, but powerful special interests are blocking the enactment of these policies...
...But by far the most common complaint is that many of these changes have tended "to reinforce individualistic anti-party politics...
...Common Cause's attacks put many congressmen on the defensive...
...For the first time they would see things from a national perspective and as a result they would be able to pursue "great and national objects...
...As Common Cause's first decade comes to an end, it is worth speculating about the effect Common Cause has had on the American political system: the effect of its rhetoric--the language it uses to engage in political debate--and the effect of the changes it has lobbied for...
...Finally, by acting responsively they tend to ingratiate themselves with their constituents at the expense of the country's political institutions...
...PACs survey the political landscape, giving money to legislators they think will be sympathetic to their interests...
...publishedpccupation with corruption led him to advocate that Common Cause focus on "structure and process" issues, that is to say, lobby for laws that would "go far toward eliminating the corrupting influence of money and secrecy in our public life...
...They were not, of course, in favor of closed government, but they thought there would be times when it might be prudent for a national legislature to deliberate in secret...
...policymakers, the ascendant school Douglas J. Feith is General Counsel to the Center for International Security...
...Of course, PACs--corporate or otherwise--would like to influence the course of legislation...
...In Federalist 1, Publius (the pseudonym under which Hamilton, Madison, and Jay wrote The Federalist) warns that "we are not always sure that those who advocate the truth are influenced by purer principle than their antagonists...
...Common Cause has worked hard to prove that money corrupts the political process...
...John Gardner has said that a citizen's movement "should want the freely elected representatives of the people to represent them wisely and well," but Common Cause's idea of republican government reduces legislators to men who are rigid when they should be flexible and servile when they should be proud, legislators who lack the courage to say that they will vote on matters not by taking opinion polls of their constituents but as they see fit, beholden only to their judgment and conscience...
...And they probably would have had grave reservations about the spate of laws enacted in the mid-1970s that have made the American government probably the most open government in history...
...Although Gardner assumes that a liberal democracy requires complete openness, the Founding Fathers--with the exception of Jefferson--thought otherwise...
...Setting an example, Byrd urged Israel to mollify the Arabs with concessions on the West Bank...
...The people, according to the First Amendment, have the right "to petition the government for a redress of grievances," but they do not have a right to know about all the deliberations that take place in Congress...
...For one thing, it results in their being besieged by lobbyists...
...In the 95th Congress voting along party lines was at the lowest level in 36 years...
...Is the shadow cast by these "reforms" larger than the shadow cast by the supposed evils of money and secrecy...
...Our Founding Fathers," Gardner has also said, "presumed continuing vigilance on the part of citizens...
...Some observers and politicians have become disenchanted with many of these changes, but the position of Common Cause has remained the same: Money and secrecy are corrupting the political process, corrupting it even though so many "good government" laws have been passed...
...In this way it abets certain populist approaches to governance--like referenda, recalls, and direct elections--even though, as a Washington-based organization that considers lobbying on Capitol Hill one of its primary activities, it does not officially support them...
...For at least the short run (that is, the period in which economic cataclysms occur, governments are overthrown, wars are fought), Persian Gulf oil will remain a vital interest of the United States...
...By changing their views, Common Cause said, "they demonstrate to their constituents that their words are meaningless...
...Some legislators agree with Common Cause...
...Surely none of the "great decisions" of the past decade can be explained by pointing to the campaign contributions made by special interests...
...The shadow cast by PACs over the political process is not nearly as large as Common Cause says...
...From the beginning, Gardner agreed with E.L...
...On the average, congressmen go home to their districts 35 weekends a year...
...Bill Frenzel of Minnesota, in an article attacking a bill to limit the influence of PACs--a bill supported by Common Cause--said that "none of the bill's supporters has been able to identify any House member who has been unduly influence~l by any interest, nor have they shown that PAC contributions are a greater ...influence than editorials, direct lobbying, demonstrations or independent expenditures...
...Common Cause exhorts its members to "keep the charts handy so that you can call your legislators to account as these issues come up for votes during the two years of this Congress...
...According to the Congressional Quarterly, Common Cause is "credited with a major role in the enactment of the 1974 campaign finance law, with helping to develop public pressure for House and Senate reforms, and with aiding pending 'governing in the sunshine' legislation...
...They presumed no such thing...
...Campaign contributions, the pamphlet claims, have affected the course of numerous bills...
...Their disinterestedness makes them incapable of even contemplating the possibility that the "reforms" they have abetted may have contributed to the paralysis of "society's problem-solving capacity...
...In other words, although its appeal would be primarily populist in nature, it would use "techniques of professional organizing and lobbying" that reformers in the past had abjured...
...Both Madison and Hamilton did not think secret sessions of the national legislature antithetical to the spirit of republican government...
...Although Common Cause announced that it would be "a third force in American life which would uphold the public interest against all comers-particularly the special interests that dominate our national life today," Gardner decided it would do so by employing skilled lobbyists who knew their way around Capitol Hill...
...No rhetoric, of course, is an impossibility: Rhetoric is an essential element of all forms of civil discourse...
...But many legislators think Common Cause has misunderstood the process...
...Although Article 1, Section 3 of the Constitution requires each house to keep a journal of its proceedings, it says that it may leave out "such parts as may in their judgment require secrecy...
...T h u s , " Common Cause concludes, 2'it was to the powerful AMA, not the public, that the committee majority wound up giving their allegiance...
...In these circumstances," according to one observ8 THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR APRIL 1980 er, "it would be absurd for a candidate to take a position on an issue because of a promised campaign gift...
...Many politicians--both Democrats and Republicans-have come to think so...
...In 1970 Common Cause said that it would take on the special interests...
...Hamilton said of the Constitutional Convention that "had deliberations been open while going on, the clamours of faction would have prevented any satisfactory result," and Madison said that "the Constitution would never have been adopted by the convention if the debates had been public...
...Statements like these reflect the deference U.S...
...In the last decade the operation of the legislative branch has been radically transformed...
...Perhaps the public has a "right to know" of the forces being brought to bear upon the governmental decision-making process, but one observer has said that the "right to know" has become " a new quasi-constitutional right," before which all other considerations must bow...
...By "continuous accountability," Common Cause seems to mean that legislators should remain firmly attached to their campaign positions...
...In a recent issue of In Common, Common Cause's quarterly journal, there are charts of how those who ran for national office in 1978 responded to a questionnaire on different issues...
...THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR APRIL 1980 7 "We are a citizen's lobby, a public interest group," Cohen has said...
...efforts to please the oil-producing countries...
...Ambition, avarice, personal animosity, party opposition, and many other motives not more laudable than these, are apt to operate as well upon those who support as those who oppose the right side of the question...
...Gardner's prescription for reform was a success...
...The Founding Fathers did not extol secrecy, but neither did they rule it out...
...Three quotations will suffice to describe the way in which Common Cause engages in political debate...
...If legislators do not remain faithful to their original positions, then Common Cause will attack them, as it did when it recently attacked several senators "for completely ignoring their clear campaign commitments less than seven months into their term...
...But the rhetoric of Common Cause is inappropriate to deliberation, for it is a rhetoric of declamation, not deliberation, a rhetoric that impugns the motives of the opposition...
...I f Common Cause has lobbied for laws to eliminate the influence money supposedly hag on the political process, it has also lobbied for laws to eliminate the "influence" of secrecy...
...In a similar vein, on the same day Senate Democratic Leader Robert Byrd suggested that the Soviets' move into Afghanistan calls for even more determined U.S...
...Although in 1978 PACs gave more money than .they gave in previous campaigns, the PAC contributions did not grow when viewed as a percentage of the whole...
...For it implies that regular elections are not sufficient to ensure that representatives act in accordance with the will of the people...
...Whether such independence is a good thing is a question that is probably on the minds of many congressmen...
...vital interests...
...Days after proclaiming his commitment to use force to defend U.S...
...When John Gardner founded Common Cause in the summer of 1970, he was very much aware of the weaknesses of previous reform movements...
...There is no clear relation, Publius implies, between pure motive and prudent policy...
...Common Cause claims, for example, that a bill to control skyrocketing hospital costs was defeated in committee by one vote because the American Medical Association, the principal opponent of the bill, had given a total of $101,259 to the committee's members since 1975...
...in 1978 House members spent $3.1 million in public funds for such trips...
...Far from thinking that secrecy bred corruption, Madison thought that secrecy aided deliberation--that in complex matters of great moment secrecy was useful because it enabled men to be open, as he said, "to the force of argument...
...THE A M E R I C A N SPECTATOR V OL...
...Such vigilance, the Founders thought, would make deliberation impossible, for men would be accused of betraying the public trust if they changed their views on any matter...
...officials pay the oil states, a deference encouraged, naturally, by the oil states themselves...
...But we can say that these issues are more complex than Common Cause has allowed, and that Common Cause's rhetoric has made it difficult for legislators to deliberate upon them carefully...
...Perhaps the most influential reform movement in history, Common Cause, as one writer has said, has over the last decade "written an uncommon success story," playing a major role in the passage of several "good government" laws...
...Rep...
...Arguing against such instructions, Burke asked: "What sort of reason is that in which the d e t e r m i n a t i o n precedes the discuss i o n . . . ?" Continuous accountability also makes it very difficult for legislators to make "great decisions," since they cannot be open, as Madison said, to the force of argument...
...As long as there is this West Bank autonomy problem," Byrd stated, "our ability to cooperate with Arab countries in meeting the common danger of possible Soviet expansionism is hampered...
...Gard...
...In an atomized Congress, lobbyists cannot rely on the power of certain key congressmen to command votes and get legislation passed...
...Disclosure laws have imposed cumbersome reporting requirements on candidates for office and on high government officials...
...Finally, continuous accountability is a very radical notion, and Gardner was right to say that Common Cause was "introducing a new ingredient into the political system...
...Responsiveness is another quality that Common Cause thinks legislators should have: Legislators should be in touch with their constituents, and constituents should visit with their representatives...
...In 1974 PACs contributed $12.5 million to congressional campaigns, whereas in 1978 they contributed $32 million...
...Commenting on changes that restrict a congressman's outside income and require the disclosure of his financial assets, Fred Wertheimer, Common Cause's senior vice-president, said that "these reforms amount to a fundamental change in the way these people do business...
...William Greider of the Washington Post has said that if the penchant for political "reform" continues, "Americans may wind up with a squeakyclean Congress that frustrates genuine democratic interests, that is less satisfying and more unrepresentative than the hoary old club it replaced...
...I have sought votes, and members have told me they received such-and-such an amount of money from one of these groups and they could not vote with me...
...Whether the changes--a more neutral word than reforms--advocated by Common Cause have made government work better is a matter of some controversy...
...The figures Common Cause cites are misleading...
...Moreover, Common Cause itself does not seem to have learned from its own experience--learned in the sense of modifying its claims in the light of what has occurred...
...Your representative," Burke said, "owes you, not his industry only, but his judgment...
...The Saudis in particular are skillfull at presenting their case, play" This sentiment is of a piece with the administration's decision in January to pressure Jerusalem more vigorously for even greater Israeli THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR APRIL 1980 1...
...By lobbying for laws that reduce the power of special interests, the problems that beset the American polity can be resolved...
...According to a recent report, many congressmen are very "responsive" to their constituents: "Mere10 THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR APRIL 1980 bers elected to Congress in the 1970s tend to devote more attention to serving their constituents, both through congressional services and largely political trips home...
...It implies that the system of republican government devised by the Founding Fathers does not work...
...and he betrays, instead of serving you, if he sacrifices it to your opinion...
...Millicent Fenwick of New Jersey said that "in my mind there is no question that there is a connection between these contributions and votes...
...who pretend to be champions for the right and the capacity of the people to choose their own rulers, yet maintain that they will prefer those only who will immediately and infallibly betray the trust committed to them...
...And Gardner has said that "openness ranks second to the rule of law as a necessary ingredient of selfgovernment...
...The strategic complexities of the West Bank issue--for instance, how concessions by Jerusalem would affect Israeli security, or how weakening Israel's military posture would damage America's military position in the region--shrink to trifles, in Byrd's view, when contrasted with America's overriding goal: persuading the oil states to allow us to defend U.S...
...terest State...
...This is the practical meaning of effective citizen action...
...By acting responsively, moreover, legislators rarely leave themselves enough time to think about the issues they are grappling with...
...In 1972, for example, almost half of all House committee meetings were closed to the public, whereas in 1975 only 3 percent were closed...
...Its membership reached 100,000 people after 23 weeks and swelled to 324,000 after three years...
...This is why Common Cause has continually focused on such "structure and process" issues...
...Bureaucratic selfinterest may have constrained Common Cause to remain faithful to its original diagnosis of the governmental process, but another factor is also at work: Like the Mugwumps' in the 1880s, Common Cause's profession of disinterestedness makes it immune to the arguments of others-makes it easy for Common Cause to dismiss those who challenge their arguments as either venal politicians or their apologists...
...By harping on the venality of politicians and by insisting that Americans distrust their elected representatives, Common Cause often seems to want to bring into question the validity of representative democracy itself, at least as we know it...
...You can walk in and out of that Ways and Means Committee while they're drafting your tax laws...
...Continuous accountability" resembles the binding instructions 18th-century electors--both in the colonies and in Britain--sometimes gave to their representatives...
...For Common Cause, eliminating the Stephen Miller is a Resident Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute...
...Though its staff has differed about the exact relationship between money and influence--Gardner has spoken of it as "the game of barter and purchase," whereas Wertheimer has said that "ours is not a barter system, but a system of relationships and dependencies" --by and large Common Cause has continued to trumpet money and secrecy as unmitigated evils...
...They were, in fact, worried about the extreme suspicions many American patriots habored for all but the most local of governments...
...Special interests are blamed for the lack of an energy policy, for the high rate of inflation--blamed even for the erosion in American support for Israel...
...A decade ago, according to a recent report, "the AFL-CIO's skilled lobbyist Andrew Biemiller would figure that any clear labor issues had 180 votes for it and the same number against . . . . Now Biemiller figures that only about 135 congressmen can reliably be counted on to aid or oppose THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR APRIL 1980 9 labor's position, and some 300 have to be individually assessed...
...Jonathan Bingham of New York has said of the 96th Congress, "I don't think there is more than the usual degree of responsiveness to special interests this year...
...More changes are needed, Common Cause says, to bring an end to the Special Interest State...
...Arguing in favor of a lobbying disclosure bill that has been opposed by virtually all other lobbying groups--both special interest groups and "public interest" groups-the legislative director of Common Cause has said that "the public has a right to know of the significant, organized, outside pressures exerted on Government decision-making...
...They know that the general public holds Congress in little esteem, and they worry that voters may think them corrupt if they don't support Common Cause's recommendations...
...Although America's government, they might have said with Lincoln, is of the people, by the people, and for the people, it is a government in which the people do not directly participate...
...Among U.S...
...By acting responsively legislators demean the function of representation, implying that a congressman is chiefly a messenger or an ombudsman...
...As Wertheimer said at a congressional hearing on legislation to provide partial public financing of House campaigns: "We are questioning the role of campaign money as used by special interests in the lobbying process and in the political process...
...If they want to make a fortune, Congress is not necessarily the place to be any more...
...interests effectively, but hampers our efforts to secure these interests from the Soviets...
...Whatever we think of the particular changes Common Cause has advocated, its general rhetoric and its specific understanding of representation recall the patriotism that Publius most feared, the patriotism proclaimed by "men of little faith" in representative government-men, as Publius says in Federalist 57, "who profess the most flaming zeal for republican government, yet boldly impeach the fundamental principle of it...
...But it is doubtful that their campaign contributions, which are perfectly legal, affect the way many congressmen vote...
...In such an atmosphere it is difficult for legislators to deliberate, to weigh the advantages of a particular policy against the disadvantages...
...Many legislators, however, do not think that special interests are so influential...
...In each district or community," Cohen has said, "Common Cause members should arrange at least two visits a year with their House member...
...corrupting influence of money and secrecy" has always meant reducing what it calls the "raw power" of the special interests...
...On such issues, Common Cause has been an influential force for change...
...Chief among these "vital interests" is our access to affordable Persian Gulf oil...
...Senator Kennedy has called the 96th Congress "the best Congress money can buy," a remark that is very similar to Gardner's comment that " t h e money-heavy special i n t e r e s t s couldn't buy themselves a President so they tried to buy as many members of Congress as they could...
...Moreover, does money really talk...
...preaches that the United States must pacify, not confront, the oil states...
...They now face a choice...
...policy in the Persian Gulf...
...Detecting a correlation between the way congressmen vote and their sources of funding, Common Cause assumes that congressmen are beholden to special interests...
...And Gardner has said that "no citizens' movement should assume that it has some divinely inspired grasp of what is 'in the public interest.' It must have the courage of its convictions, but it must present those convictions in the public forum where all other groups can debate their validity...
Vol. 13 • April 1980 • No. 4
