From: jim bell <jimbell@pacifier.com>
Date: Mon, 18 Dec 1995 17:08:48 +0800
To: Simon Spero <ses@tipper.oit.unc.edu>
Subject: Re: Political Cleanup program
Message-ID: <m0tRWUD-0008zuC@pacifier.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


At 07:03 PM 12/17/95 -0500, you wrote:
>On Sun, 17 Dec 1995, jim bell wrote:
>
>> 
>> It occurs to me that it would be a major advance if a system could be set up
>> that would "blind" campaign donations as to their source:  The donor could
>> be satisfied that his donation gets to the candidate or cause, but the
>> candidate couldn't know  who actually paid the money (and the donor would be
>> unable to prove that he made a donation, for example).  Admittedly there are
>> a lot of details that need to be worked out, but if this could be
>> accomplished it would change politics as we know it.
>
>Just a straight Chaumian style blinding won't work, as there are too many 
>covert channels available via both timing and amounts; For example, Joe 
>Random Capitalist-Oppressor could arrange to pay a series of relatively 
>small amounts wth different values in the cents field which could be used 
>to confirm their payment (e.g. they could be composed to form a digitally 
>signed value of some kind ("pollution rools" or "lung cancer is kool") :)

Yes, as I suggested a number of details would be necessary to avoid this.
Reporting only cumulative donations, occasionally over a long period of time
(once every three months, for instance), and even then only approximating
the total number would make  doing such a correlation extremely difficult.


>Sen. Dianne Running-Dog could then look for a matching set of donations 
>and confirm that the bribe had in fact been paid. 
>
>There are much better ways of reforming the political system -the 
>formation of proper political parties with real programmes (the one good 
>thing about the newtoid surge); changing the rules for TV advertising, 
>etc. Blinding just makes things worse.

The blinding needs only be temporary; long enough so the politician can't
act improperly on the donation, but  eventually revealed in enough time to
expose political influence before  the next election.


Besides, I have already proposed what I consider to be a _better_ method of
reforming government.  It's called "Assassination Politics."  Perhaps you've
heard of it.