Death and Campaign Finance

By Crispin Sartwell

Finally, due to the utterly appropriate embarrassment of the Bush administration, we are getting campaign finance reform. It is hard to miss the fact that the interpenetration of the Federal government and the Enron corporation, or the energy industry in general, has driven administration energy policy, almost to the exclusion of any other consideration.

As reprehensible as that is, and as potentially destructive as it is to the environment and the economy, it seems almost trivial compared to the way the situation looks with regard to Israel.

On April 22 and 23, half the Senate, 90 members of the house, and many senior administration officials attended the meeting of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). They fell all over themselves in praise of Israel. Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle said that US support of Israel "must be absolute." On that, House Majority Whip Tom Delay, White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card and scores of others were in agreement.

AIPAC contributed about $6 million to candidates of both parties in the last election cycle. One wonders how much of this unconditional support would have been available if there had been no money involved. In fact, the support that the Palestinian cause receives is approximately proportioned to its financial lobby.

Meanwhile let me remind you of a few conspicuous facts: three weeks before the AIPAC meeting, the Israeli armed forces bulldozed the Jenin refugee camp. The extent of the damage is still not clear, in part because Israel resists efforts to inspect the site. But relief workers report a humanitarian horror, in which people's houses were pulled down on top of them.

It strikes me as deeply disturbing that while the Palestinians have urged immediate UN inspections, Israel seems intent on delay. But it strikes me as absolutely unforgivable that Israel did not allow rescue workers and emergency vehicles to save people in the sites of their incursions.

Meanwhile, President Bush praised Ariel Sharon as a "man of peace." Making such statements, or the statements of unqualified support that were made at AIPAC, before we even have a clear picture of what happened at Jenin, is frighteningly indifferent to the facts.

Of course, our elected officials cannot be convicted or supporting state terrorism and wanton killing simply because they received campaign contributions. The current campaign finance situation makes every situation into a kind of soup into which all the ingredients have disappeared. No one is responsible for anything; nothing causes anything.

That's what the current system is *for*: releasing everyone from the web of causation.

On the other hand, the whole thing reeks to high heaven. And that is the deep problem with campaigns in which money floats amorphously around policy. No one is convicted and everyone is suspect.

That's one thing when it comes to policies favoring various corporate interests, or the trial lawyers, or the teacher's union. It's another when it comes to policies favoring bulldozing human beings.

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Crispin Sartwell teaches philosophy at the Maryland Institute College of Art. Contact him at www.crispinsartwell.com