Follow the Money, See Where it Goes

The right to free speech has been the hallmark of maintaining democracy in the United States. However, speech itself has changed dramatically in the country. With the creation of radio, television, and the internet most recently, it is increasingly easy to spread information. Politicians quickly saw how easy they could spread their message with a little investment into broadcasting.

Since the early 1900s congress has passed legislation to limit how powerful groups donate money towards a particular candidate. But, in 2010, the Supreme Court rolled back precedent on campaign finance reform. In a 5-4 decision for Citizens United v. FEC led by Justice Kennedy, the court ruled that Congress could not limit the amount of money that corporations or unions, etc could spend in an election. These groups were not allowed to donate directly to the candidates, but could campaign on their behalf. It was strictly prohibited for these donating groups to collude with individual candidates in the campaigning process. As a result of this decision, Political Action Committees, or PACs, began generating millions of dollars from individuals, corporations, and labor unions. The PACs do not work for the candidates they support, rather, they advocate on their behalf, mostly negatively toward the other candidates. 

Fast forward to 2017: the majority of Americans do not support the ruling, fearing a small group of rich elites can influence an entire election. According to Bloomberg in 2015, 78% of Americans do not support the decision to let unlimited sums of “dark money” to infiltrate the political process. And there is cause to fear this dark money; in the 2012 and 2016 presidential elections more money was spent by PACs (largely funded by unnamed donors) than the politicians themselves. It is quite unnerving to not know whose interests are really being served: the donor or the voter. To this end, many common people have started to value grassroots campaigning over the traditional framework. Much of Bernie Sanders’ success among Dems was based on the fact he touted his grassroots campaigning over “crooked, corporate” Hillary. On the whole, the status quo for campaign finance is not working and the American want and need a change.