“The truth is that because both parties are in the
tank with these huge (campaign) contributions, no matter who wins our public
policy is being bought off after the election. It has even happened literally
in the halls of Congress. That kind of thing happened in the 1990s, before John
McCain and I were able to stop party soft money. We had votes of, for example,
85–15, 90–10, where both parties were bought off on things like trade
agreements, telecommunications, and, of course, the outrageous repeal of the
Glass-Steagall Act, which had more to do with our economic collapse than
anything else. It’s happening again, maybe worse than before. To me, you have
to broaden the frame to see that in the long run, this will be crushing to our
democracy.”—Russell Feingold, former U.S. Senator from Wisconsin, interviewed
by Francis Fukuyuma, “A Senator's Lament,”
The American Interest, March/April
2013
(Photograph of
Russell Feingold taken August 2006, while he was still a member of the Senate.)
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