In today's politics, money talks -- deafeningly. By standing silently, a lone figure in front of a massed crowd, Roy Shilling helped us see how.

Lecturing at Southwestern University, television journalist Bill Moyers asked the university's long-time president to play the heavy in an audience-participation tableau designed to make a point: A few big political donors are buying our elections.

In a passionate, worried speech titled "Soul of Democracy," Moyers examined the future of a nation whose elections increasingly are dominated by money. He said he hoped his grandchildren's political worth would not be determined by their net worth.

He looked back in history, to the Roman Empire's downward spiral into money corruption.

Then he looked out -- into the audience at the university's new events center in Georgetown. He asked his 900 or so listeners to stand and divide themselves into a "living bar graph." He wanted to demonstrate how few are those who control democracy these days.

The first invited to sit were those representing the unregistered. The size of the disaffected majority became clearer when the group representing registered non-voters also dropped back to their seats.

In the end, Shilling was asked to stand alone, directly in front of Moyers. Here, the speaker told the crowd, is a way of visualizing something frightening: How many sit on the sidelines while a few -- the new plutocracy -- elect leaders.

Only 4 percent of people in the United States contribute money to national political campaigns, according to studies by the Center for Responsive Politics. Only one-half of 1 percent of the people contribute $1,000 or more. A much smaller number give $100,000 and up. When benefits are distributed, you'll find them at the head of the line.

Big donors, Moyers said, rob the rest of us. It's been estimated that corporate subsidies and tax breaks cost each of us $1,600 a year. Defense funds are diverted into development of executive jets. Privacy is sold to the newly melded banking-insurance-brokerage industry. The environment is sold to big polluters. Most people are victims of "taxation without representation," said Moyers. This creates apathy and cynicism.

"It's not right, and it's not fair," the former press secretary to President Lyndon Johnson said of the present system. People want something else but feel powerless.

The gap between rich and poor in this country is the largest it has been in 50 years, he said. It's the largest among the world's industrialized nations. The widening gap undermines democracy.

The wealthy, he said, should be allowed to buy all they want of most things. More and bigger houses. More and bigger cars and sport-utility vehicles. More vacations. More luxuries. "But they should not be allowed to buy more democracy."

Responding to questions from a student panel after his speech, Moyers expressed dismay at the record-breaking amount spent by Texas Gov. George W. Bush to win the South Carolina primary, which was still in the future when Moyers spoke last week.

Moyers had warned that his comments "might rankle some of you." Williamson County, after all, is prosperous and conservative. But applause indicated that the crowd of students, faculty, alumni and "townies" generally supported his message. John McCain's call for campaign finance reform has played well in Republican primary elections. That suggests that disgust with the system may be widespread.

The Moyers speech was the first in a lecture series established last year by the Brown Foundation Inc. of Houston to honor Shilling and his wife, Margaret. Roy Shilling is retiring after 19 years at the helm of the small, Methodist-affiliated university. Lecture topics will center on democracy and public life.

Davis is an American-Statesman editorial writer. You may contact her at mdavis@statesman.com or 445-3635.

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