One thing all Americans want from our government is transparency. None of us likes the idea of special interests secretly running politics. We don’t like being lied to, and we hate broken promises. Unfortunately, many of us have accepted that politicians are dishonest and politics is shady.

Enter Russell Feingold. This junior senator from Wisconsin refused soft money contributions during his 1998 senatorial campaign, got his campaign funds mostly in small amounts from individual Wisconsinites, and even asked several special-interest groups not to run ads on his behalf. The nonpartisan Concord Coalition has named him one of the most fiscally responsible senators.

Feingold was the only senator to vote against the PATRIOT Act, but before you write him off as a socialist radical, consider this: He’s also been endorsed by the Democratic Freedom Caucus, a libertarian-style group that encourages introducing consumer choice into public services. And he has also voted against gun control legislation, saying,

Millions of Americans own firearms legally and we should not take action that tells them that they are second-class citizens or that their constitutional rights are under attack. At the same time, there are actions we can and should take to protect public safety that do not infringe on constitutional rights.

Feingold’s not a Hillary-style conservative democrat. He’s a Democrat with some positions conservatives might agree with. And one position everyone can agree on: transparency. Feingold doesn’t want the government tapping your phone or looking at your bank statements, but you can look at his campaign balance sheet any time. And as our administration gets more secretive by the day, that’s exactly what I want.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 1st, 2006 at 12:44 pm. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.