Summary: March 30, 2001

Forum Day 10: Reflections on the Dialogue: Hearing a public voice-Group Reflections.

This was the second day of the two concluding days of the online forum on the issue "Money and Politics: Who Owns Democracy?" The purpose of this last part of the forum was to capture reflections on any common themes or common ground-for-action voiced by the group of people who had participated over the course of the online forum.

The forum moderator asked participants to try to capture the "public voice" from this forum by conveying in some way what they heard the group saying. What she asked them to seek was; not necessarily consensus, but rather "general statements that reflect common points of interest...common ground, common concern or perhaps even our common goal." The group was also asked to look for areas of tensions and those areas that still most need to be explored.

Note: The last scheduled day for this forum was Friday, March 30th, but postings through Sunday, April 1st were included in this summary.

Agreeing that money in politics is a problem, and that something needs to be done about it were suggested as areas of common ground in this forum. However some participants said that those themes were so commonly expressed as to be considered assumptions and sought for additional common threads running through the deliberation.

Some participants suggested that these commonly recurring themes or concerns either characterized the forum in general or characterized one or two large groups of voices in the forum:

• An awareness that the present system is not working very well-at least not for everybody
• A mistrust of government-politicians, lobbyists, and possibly even in the abilities of many voters to become and stay engaged in the system well enough to make a difference-"As long as the present system is mistrusted, won't any regulation, no matter how well intentioned, drag us deeper into the mire?"
• That this problem will continue in different guises as different remedies are applied, and that continued vigilance and efforts will be necessary-"There will always be a tension between ideals and practical realities."

It was suggested that some of the common ground about the nature of the problems related to money in politics included:

• Candidates and officeholders spend too much time raising money
• Money increases access to politicians
• Money, at the very least appears to influence decisions
• Representation of those with and of those without money is disproportionate

It was also suggested that there were two general, competing mindsets during the forum:

• Those who see the remedy in less regulation and smaller government and
• Those who see regulations as needed-and there were the beginnings of development of some criteria upon which to base effective campaign finance reforms

Regarding areas of discussion for further exploration, and of next steps, some participants said the following:

• "When you don't make a decision on public policy, in effect you are making one. That one is the status quo, and it is often not held to the same scrutiny as the other options. Unfortunately, that choice requires no agreement but is rather the beneficiary of the lack of agreement on any alternative."
• The real challenge is "to find ways of working together effectively given the differences we have, not only in our interests, but in our way of perceiving the world."
• "I haven't got a plan or a system, but I still have some hope...if you keep bringing up the subject, then you are doing something about it."
• "But the key characteristic we share, even with our divergent perspectives, is that public processes do count, merit our attention, and stimulate our participation by word and deed." "...Humble beginnings are not impediments to great conclusions."

The intent of each day's summary is to capture the essence of the conversation. It is for the benefit of participants and for others who may be observing the forum, or may be interested in the topic, or in the process. Comments on the summaries, as well as on any aspect of the forum, are as always, more than welcome.

Patty Dineen
Online Forum Reporter, April 1, 2001