Paul D Wellstone example essay topic

Issue #3 in Mckenna and Feingold is entitled "Are the New Limits on Campaign Spending Justified?" . Paul D Wellstone, A Democratic senator from Minnesota believes that yes they are justified. He believes that the new limits are "an enormous step forward" in decreasing the excess power of wealthy special interests in U.S. elections. On the other hand, John Samples, director of the Cato Institute's Center for Representative Government, believes that the new limits will "reduce voter turnouts, make it more difficult for challengers to win against incumbents, and stifle free speech". After reading both arguments, for and against the new campaign finance reform, I would tend to agree with Paul D. Wellstone in that these new limits are very justifiable and beneficial. One of Wellstone's main arguments is that the political process is dominated by money.

First, he claims that voters are turned off from voting because they think that they don't have a role in the political process, and they are disappointed with both parties. Wellstone made a comment I found to be very true, which was "If you pay you play, and if you don't pay you don't play". I agree with him and believe that there is too much money in politics. Basically, candidates need to be wealthy or they need to have raised millions of dollars, otherwise they don't stand a chance to be elected. There are very many intelligent people who have the power to do great things for our country, but could never be elected into office because they are not wealthy. Wellstone gave a great example of this injustice with the story of Reverend Carrie Bolton.

She came from a very poor family and grew up working in the fields, yet she managed to obtain 2 master's degrees, and perform post doctoral work. She is an amazing women yet she stands no chance in politics because she has no money. In addition, Wellstone says that those who have the "clout and those who make big contributions" are the influential ones, and are the ones we pay attention to and listen to. This is very true. The majority of people do not have a voice and they never get heard. Personally, I tend to trust someone more who I hear about on TV and does a lot of campaigning.

They have a high social status and have enough money to do a great deal of campaigning. I also have trust in the incumbents because they have experience and a record (and also are very wealthy). Overall, I agree with Paul Wellstone in that the new limits on campaign finance are a good idea and will benefit the society. They give more people the opportunity to run for office, and make sure office-holders are doing their real job. The new limits will also increase peoples motivation to vote.