The potentate of change, changes his mind about public funding

“You will not be able to stay home, plug in, turn on and cop out … the revolution will not be televised … the revolution will put you in the driver’s seat … ” — Gil Scott-Heron, poet

Thanks to the Internet, many citizens are now plugging in, turning on, blogging, chatting, twittering and then some, to reclaim the democratic process that makes this country “the place to be.”

Welcome to the revolution — where for the first time in history a presidential candidate, not to mention an African American candidate, has raised so much money from Internet contributions that he could say “no” to public financing. That’s the power of the people!

Obama’s announcement last week that he would not be accepting public funds to feed his campaign into the general election was met with a firestorm of commentary from political pundits. Why all the fuss? Isn’t this the ultimate move toward campaign finance reform?

In his response to the Midwest Democracy Network’s presidential candidate questionnaire, released Nov. 27, 2007, Obama was asked: If you are nominated for President in 2008 and your major opponents agree to forgo private funding in the general election campaign, will you participate in the presidential public financing system?

Obama answered yes and went on tout his support of presidential public finance reform . So, the potentate of “Yes, we can change” changed his mind — nearly a year later. What’s the big deal? I guess it’s a hard pill for McCain to swallow given the ground-breaking million dollar online Internet contributions he raised in the 2000 campaign – more than any other candidate had ever raised online that year. McCain could use the public funds, but Obama doesn’t need them. However, Obama is expected to ”on principle” forgo all the private funds that he has collected — the majority of which are from the general “Internet savvy” public who contributed online — to accept the campaign limitations that he will have to adhere to if he accepts the public funding? No. It makes sense to me that, in a democratic society, that if you’re for the people and financially beholdened to the people then you will listen to them and give the people what they want.

Power to the people! Really?
The real success of the movement toward digital campaigns is yet to be seen. The success will be aptly measured by the willingness of the new administration and congress to write policy that supports more jobs, lower gas prices, affordable housing and a substantive investment in the kind of innovative technology that will make all these things possible.