The Supreme Issue: The Power of Money

 La Follette’s Supreme Issue

Robert M. La Follette saw clearly that underlying the many, specific issues that were debated in Congress lay a single, overriding issue. He said,

The Supreme Issue, involving all others, is the encroachment of the powerful few upon the rights of the many. This mighty power has come between the people and their government. Can we free ourselves from this control? Can representative government be restored? Shall we, with statesmanship and constructive legislation, meet these problems, or shall we pass them on with all the possibilities of conflict and chaos, to future generations?[1]

In La Follette’s time, the issues were things like workmen’s compensation or railroad regulation, while in our time, they are things like affordable healthcare or environmental regulation. Nevertheless, the supreme, overriding issue remains the same. Can we doubt that our lack of affordable health care is due to the political opposition of organized medicine, big Pharma and the American Hospital Association? Can we doubt that necessary environmental regulations are prevented by the opposition of big mining companies and of big agriculture?

The Political Power of Money

La Follette believed that measures like primary elections and the direct election of senators would give the electoral power back to the people, but he reckoned without the power of money to dominate our modern media of communication and through them, to dominate elections. Today, we have to deal with Citizens United. Today we have to deal with the use of television and the internet to spread lies and misinformation. Today, we have the MAGA movement that its adherents believe to be populist, but which is nothing but a smoke screen for a party that favors the interests of corporations and the very rich. Today, we have to deal with culture wars that are ginned up to garner votes for candidates who will prevent the success of the Wisconsin Idea. Today, we have judges who are so immersed in a corrupt environment that they can no longer recognize corruption when they see it.

How Can We Fight Effectively?

How can we fight effectively against such powerful forces? The first step is to make sure that our own minds are clear and that we recognize La Follette’s Supreme Issue. We need to remember that the goal is to promote legislation to benefit the greatest number of people. When we think about healthcare or childcare, we should ask ourselves what will benefit the greatest number of people. When we think about the environment or abortion, we should ask ourselves the same question.

The second step is to resist the attempts by the opponents of the Wisconsin Idea to divide us along the lines of race or gender. The fight is not just to benefit women or people of color. The fight is for all of us, and we must do what we can to stay together. We can see how this may be done in an article on the abortion issue on this blog.

We must also focus on framing our proposals in clear, moral terms. We must make is clear that we are fighting for what is right. Here is an example. In addition to the ideas in the example, we should appeal to well-established American political values and explicitly to the Wisconsin Idea.

Reform Our Campaign Finance System

Today, politicians have to spend an inordinate amount of time raising money for elections, and the people who give money must inevitably influence a politician’s views and actions. Even Supreme Court justices, who do not have to run for election, can find themselves submerged in a sea of wealth, and it must inevitably affect the decisions they make. To see the seriousness of the problem, you can watch the movie The Laundromat on Netflix. The movie will show you why our fight will always be an uphill battle until we secure serious, effective campaign finance reform.

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[1] Robert M. La Follette (author), Ellen Torelle (editor), The Political Philosophy of Robert M. La Follette as Revealed in His Speeches and Writings, Kindle Edition, Section: “The Supreme Issue.” Page numbers in the Kindle edition are not useful because readers may set different font sizes. So, I have used the section titles to indicate where each quotation may be found in the book.