A blogging friend Nan of https://sayitnow.wordpress.com/ recently wrote about her thoughts on political contributions….
I thought I would continue somewhat on her thoughts.
Personally I think that there is too much cash political elections….and apparently I am not alone….
A significant majority of Americans agree that there is too much money in the US political system and that the super rich have more influence over election outcomes than ordinary citizens, a poll published by Politico on Saturday found.
The poll comes after outside spending in the 2024 election broke records, with richest-man-alive Elon Musk pouring over $250 million into President Donald Trump’s campaign.
…
According to the poll, 72% of Americans agree that there is too much money in politics, while only 5% disagree. There is broad partisan consensus on this issue, with 80% of 2024 Kamala Harris voters and 77% of 2024 Trump voters also agreeing.
At the same time, 61% think that billionaires have too much influence on US politics. There was a larger partisan gap on this issue, with 75% of Harris voters and 55% of Trump voters agreeing
A total of 67% of respondents think that there is too much special interest money specifically in elections, and 53% see it as a form of corruption that should be restricted. There is also bipartisan support for the idea that special interest money is corruption, with 61% of Harris voters and 56% of Trump voters backing this position.
There is slightly more concern about money in politics from Democratic voters, with 49% of 2024 Harris voters stating it could outright buy elections compared with 33% of Trump voters.
https://www.commondreams.org/news/too-much-money-in-politics
It has been this way for far too long….it is time to stop bitching about and do something is my advice to the Dems in Congress.
The sad part is that they are just as empowered by all this cash as the Repubs….so there will be very little interest in turning a new leaf….there will always be something more important that they have to deal with on their limited agenda.
I am not saying to do not contribute but the money should go into a fund and be divided evenly among candidates….all candidates….this would help eliminate some of the special interests influence.
This will not solve the problem completely but it could help lessen the effect of all that cash.
Thoughts would be nice.
I Read, I Write, You Know
“lego ergo scribo”
I like your idea, but – as you stated – it will not solve the problem. According to the FEC, the Biden/Harris campaigns for the 2023-2024 period raised $1.175 billion. Of that, about $614 million came from individual donors; and, according to best estimates, roughly 20% of that came from billionaires. Most of the remainder, $534 million, came from “authorized committees” which are able to avoid weak disclosure rules. Investigative journalists have labeled it as “dark money” which is believed to come from a variety of special interest groups representing wealthy people and huge corporations.
When there is that much money involved there will always be problems. chuq
There is a simple solution to the problem but it will never happen because it would require an amendment to the constitution that would almost certainly never get passed because these weasels in politics have too much to gain from the current system.
1. Only voters who actually live in the politician’s district and are eligible to vote in the election can make any tangible contribution to the politician’s campaign, whether that contribution is in the form of money, political advertising or any other assistance to a candidate. This is supposed to be a representative government. The politicians we elect are supposed to represent the voters who actually live in their district. Period. Therefore persons outside of that district should have no influence whatsoever on the voting process in that district. Note that I said “person” meaning an actual human being. Corporations and businesses are deliberately excluded from making any attempt to influence an election. Corporations are a legal fiction. They are nothing but a collection of laws and rules intended to make business easier. This does not grant them any rights whatsoever.
2. I’d go even further and restrict the contributions persons might make to a candidate or political party to a single, $10 contribution per year. Politicians will have an absolute fit over this of course. They will claim that there is no way they can run a campaign without injections of massive amounts of money. Bull shit. Restricting it would mean that these cowardly little weasels would finally have to go out into their districts and do something they haven’t done in decades: Actually talk to the voters in their districts instead of sitting on their fat asses being pampered by oligarchs and corporations.
I like the idea….anything to get these twats out among the people they represent…..a interview on TV is not out and about…..chuq
I think that isolation from the people they are supposed to be representing is a huge problem these days. They almost never appear in public except at carefully scripted media events. And even then the audiences are almost always hand picked by the politician’s team to make sure it’s a friendly environment. Scott Walker started that crap here in Wisconsin the last time he ran for governor. He only appeared in public in a situation where he had to answer questions when it was a staged and scripted event with the audience carefully selected and you had to be on the invitation list to get in. They’re totally isolated from the people they’re supposed to be representing and the only ones who have actual access to them are the ones with deep pockets.
Chuq, the following is the comment I left on Nan’s post, and I stick by that.
‘I have paid monthly membership dues to belong to political parties at times, but never made an actual donation. It is compulsory here for politcal parties to check on the sender of any donations in excess of £500/$675. Anonymous contributions over that amount are not allowed to be accepted. If the donation amount exceeds £7,500/$10,220 they must by law report them to the Electoral Commission who will show them on a public register.’
Best wishes, Pete.