Let's hear it for more student editorials! Alex Roehrkasse, of the campus-based Clean Elections group, Democracy Matters, writes in the Brown Daily Herald on the public financing system being proposed in Rhode Island: reduce the influence of special interests and restore honest leadership for the price of a few pancakes. Order up!

Roehrkasse makes a strong argument for change, offering up the facts and figures to support a switch from conventional big money politics to a Clean Elections model. I like this bit in particular:

As the dust settles from November's political chaos, you might find yourself excited, disappointed, relieved, galvanized or just plain fed up. But however you feel about the election results, the process demands just as much reflection. There is no quick fix to the financial dynamics of American politics. Clean Elections, however, offers an honest and imperative step in the right direction.