Correspondence
"Correspondence" LETTER FROM A WHIG (continued from page 4) every city council will have a piece of the action. 6) The check off" plan as drafted contains no...
...If they have only modest means of their own, they will supplement the public funds with the usual private fund raising activities...
...Anonymous) St...
...I must admit, I at least enjoy this practice while questioning the principle - - and I am not even sure the principle is bad...
...This version, henceforth known as Will's Law, is that public campaign money drives private money into the primaries...
...The answer is that no one will prevent it because there is nothing in the bill to prevent it...
...This is how Washington's empires grow...
...Every presidential campaign generates millions of bills, receipts, budgets, etc...
...Gabriel School Greenville, North Carolina r Ah how sophisticated are the ways of the modern Klan in its schemes to discredit Mother Church - - R E T . j To the Editor: I find your publication an excellent and timely commentary...
...Then there is land to be purchased and a new building to be built...
...Make no mistake about it...
...and Federal aid to education, at every level...
...The Internal Revenue Service has always said that it c a n not handle each tax return individually...
...13) Yes, the Democratic Party is in debt and has its problems...
...14) There is a case to be made for the position that this check off" practice is unconstitutional because it denies equal protection" of the laws to minor parties...
...It will require a lot of new programs, a large staff, a director to direct this empire...
...We are ashamed to have our mailman even deliver such poor literature to us...
...6) The check off" plan as drafted contains no effective provision for policing the use of these substantial sums...
...9) And what about the individuals who get the money...
...Enclosed please find a check for fifty cents (please bill me if that's not sufficient...
...But I am sure that they will work for the short term gain of the party that controls the Congress that passes them...
...10) The real effect of the Pastore amendment will be governed by a version of Gresham's law...
...That is one very good reason why the basic IRS audit is limited and random...
...Jackson...
...As I write this the tax bill is on the way to conference with the House where conferees will iron out the differences between the two versions of the bill...
...Craig Edwards Hanover College Hanover, Indiana pay for whomever we decide to run...
...Party organization, it is well to remember, is the place where real participatory democracy is practiced in this Republic...
...There is no reason to believe that campaigns will be exempt from the iron law of Federal aid: Strings follow cash...
...To repeat, we can be sure that the Pastore amendment will give birth to a variety of guidelines" designed to influence who runs, and when and where and under what circumstances the campaigus take place...
...Who is going to prevent some sub-Wallace figure from putting his relatives on the campaign pay-roll at $50,000 a month...
...There are only three reasons why the Democratic Party is in trouble with the electorate: its past record, and its current issues and candidates...
...If during pre-Pastore amendment days X million dollars were spent in Presidential campaigns, and the Pastore amendment makes Y dollars available, then it is a lead pipe cinch that approximately X plus Y dollars will be spent in the next election...
...I would not be at all surprised if, at least in the first years, the cost of administering the check off" system equalled or even exceeded the amount of money actually disbursed to the parties...
...But now each return will have to be scanned for the check off" detail...
...And the fact that I cannot think of what these guidelines will be only convinces me that they will be unimaginably pernicious...
...Thank you ! Lynn Kinsky Santa Barbara, California To the Editor: For two months now we have been receiving what we consider a very vulgar, smutLy sort of magazine entitled The Alternative addressed to a Sister Paschal...
...final race, and you encourage people to put their private money behind candidates seeking nominations...
...Presumably these good Democrats are not supposed to care who will be nominated or who will wind up spending their money...
...That is, guarantee that the candidate will be well funded in the...
...This will further weaken parties and party responsibility, while making strong (and particularly charismatic) candidates increasingly independent of party organization...
...These problems - - and not public revenues - - should be the wages of sin...
...Thai is, a stable two-party system is so beneficial that I would hate to see an attack mounted against these laws...
...8) So this will just leave the parties free to do what they do now - - that is, raise as much money as possible...
...The ethic implicit in the Pastore amendment is: Shut up and fork over, and CORRESPONDENCE To the editor: I just heard that the current Al ternatwe contains a letter written by me...
...But if the Pastore amendment becomes law, then perhaps we will have reached a point at which justice and utility are no longer served by what will then be an excessive pattern of discrimination against unestablished parties...
...It is ahnost certainly too much ~ hope that the House Conferences (a majority of whom will be Democrats)will oppose the Pastore amendment...
...Shirley Chisolm...
...7) Note that the money is given to individuals, not to parties...
...We have not subscribed to this disgusting type of printed matter and ask you to please discontinue sending the booklet to us...
...12) So for four years good Democrats cheek off" a dollar for the Democratic Party...
...11) Once the Government begins to pay for campaigns, it will not be long before a variety of Federal controls - - guidelines" - - will be forthcoming...
...The rich will be especially free with their own money in primary races...
...In that case the cost of the check off" plan to the Treasury will be more than double the figure originally antioipated...
...Admittedly this is not the first law which works against the proliferation of parties...
...Will it be Kennedy...
...Who is going to monitor the mountain of paper to see that the money is spent for legitimate campaign expenses...
...20 The A l t e r n a t i v e J a n u a r y , 1972 LETTER FROM A WHIG (continued from page 4) every city council will have a piece of the action...
...This is so because it tends to freeze the three existing parties into well-subsidized existence, while making it very difficult indeed for any other parties to compete by starting from scratch...
...But enough of this...
...But then the parties can spend the money for other political chores, such as funding voter registration campaigns...
...Thus the effect of the Pastore amendment may be to make it harder for men of modest means to get nominated...
...Egotist that I am, I would like to have a copy...
...16) The cost of administering this -sorting out the dollars, categorizing them, distributing them to the individua l s - w i l l be substantial...
...It would be perfectly legal...
...That has been the pattern in Federal aid to agriculture...
...and Federal aid to everything else...
...I do not know what the guidelines are apt to be...
...Thus the only possibility for eleminating the cheek off" plan resides with the Presi...
...I realize that the bill stipulates that not more than X dollars should be spent, but there is no way to police this...
...Quick now, guess: What party benefits most from aggressive registration drives that fill the voting rolls with people who, under normal circumstances, would be too lethargic to bestir themselves for any civic activities...
...Is it possible thai this cheek off" plan might be aborled...
...15) The mechanics of .administering this check off" system will be complicated and expensive...
...Now comes the Pastore amendment to guarantee that ne matter how much more incompetent and unrepresentative the Democratic Party becomes, it can still count on a sizeable slug of public revenues...
...Many state laws concerning procedures for getting a party on the ballot are designed to make it difficult for minor parties to prosper...
...can he live without a car and driver...
Vol. 5 • January 1972 • No. 4
