L. Paxon: “for years the two-party system has served this Nation well and has helped to make America the strongest democracy in the…”

“for years the two-party system has served this Nation well and has helped to make America the strongest democracy in the history of the world. Today we have really seen on this floor the beginning of a direct assault on the two-party system in the guise of so-called reform. I warn my colleagues, as you well know, because someone walks to the well of the House and says something is reform does not make it so. As a matter of fact, I believe that if these measures pass, we can predict three things: First, the diminishing of our two-party system; secondly, a diminishing of the ability of candidates to be responsible for the messages in their campaigns to the electorate; and, third, because so-called reform will actually move dollars from the Federal system that we have today of disclosure, those dollars will end up in issue advocacy campaigns, and that will mean no disclosure of where the dollars come from, no disclosure of where the dollars are going to or being spent, and, undoubtedly, more of what we are seeing today, negative and attack commercials that are not controlled by anyone. Now, there is much talk though on this floor about controlling one thing, and that is these very issue advocacy campaigns. But that is a fantasy. The courts will not allow it, and that is clear.”