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Steve Fogleman is a politically active student from Maryland. During the convention he told the country, "I just want to beg you to get involved as a volunteer for the Democratic Party. There's too much on the line to stay at home--and there are plenty of extremists on the other side all too willing to sacrifice their time and energy to electing those with a frightening agenda."

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Although the recent Congressional hearing have focused on transgressions by the President, the Vice President and even Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle, it is clearly documented that Presidents Reagan and Bush have offers similar special access to Federal offices and landmarks as well. Ironically, the greatest abuser and defender of the current system is Kentucky Republican Mitch McConnell, who ran and won as an outsider against Dee Muddleston in 1980. Now, McConnell is the consummate insider, taking millions from special interest groups in the last decade, and has threatened to filibuster any meaningful piece of campaign reform legislation away from the Senate's consideration. The fund-raising probe in Congress has now taken a sharper, more insidious and farsighted approach. The Republican Leadership has finally given up on assaulting the President, realizing that the President is a lame duck, and that Congressional credibility sinking to new lows, it is certain that the Vice President will be able to match up to any putative Republican nominee in the financial ethics category.

I can point fingers all day, and we can tabulate whether Republicans or Democrats have taken more campaign contributions in the dirtiest ways. That will not solve the problem. Unfortunately, few of the members of Congress from either party are able to fix the problem, since they are suckled by the system they now denigrate. All State and Federal contributions from Corporations and individuals should be limited to a $100 maximum. There is simply no reason to justify that corporations should be allowed a higher maximum contribution than an individual. Anyone who launders contributions through friends and employees should serve time. Every State Board of Elections in the country, along with the Federal Election Commission, should have computers filing and online access to contributor lists and finance reports. Until we let the legs out from under the current campaign finance system, the political process in this country will suffer. The public confidence in our elected officials and our institutions will remain low. Citizens will not write their congressmen, not go to public fora, not vote, not run. As long as the voter believes that his opinion may count less than a lobbyist, who's ready to write a check or buy a hundred bull roast tickets, he isn't voting.