Money speaks louder

Regarding “Ruling against donor disclosure astonishes Schumer,” ( July 8): In George Will’s article on the recent Supreme Court case dealing with the disclosure of the names of political donors, he writes, “The senator who was unhappy about people trying to influence their government — the senator eager to reduce the amount of political speech, which all political contributions fund, directly or indirectly — was Schumer.”

Unfortunately, speech and money are not one-for-one equivalents, as we know from the old truism, “Money speaks louder than words.” We also know that politicians do not treat people who give them substantial amounts of campaign money in the same manner as people who simply give them their views on what positions they should take in representing them.

This is a problem in Texas for more than those running for a representational office, as our state has the misfortune of being one of those which still elect judges. Judges more than anyone elected to office should never be swayed in carrying out their judicial duties by donations given to them by the very lawyers (or parties on behalf of those lawyers) who appear before them in the court cases over which they preside.

We should all be concerned about who is giving how much money to the people we vote for. If we see candidates who take large sums of money later voting in favor of the interests of the donors, that is useful information to have for the next election. We are on our way to becoming a plutocracy (if we’re not already there), and we all know that a bought government is not one “of the people, by the people, for the people.”

John K. Lottinville, Houston