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Democracy, elections and money (lots)

For a country which forever extols as one of its virtues how democratic it is, the ability in the USA to influence elections by throwing large sums of money at candidates, advertising and everything associated with the electoral process, makes a mockery of the claim.

"Previously, there was a limit of $123,200 that any individual could donate to candidates or parties in a two-year election cycle. There was also a limit on how much a person could give to each particular candidate. The cap on donations to a single candidate still stands. But now you can give to as many candidates as you like and up to $3.6m in an election cycle. They could buy up the whole of Congress if they wanted to.

Relatively few people have both the desire and the ability to do that. Fewer than 600 donors gave the maximum in 2012. But raw numbers are deceptive. The rich, already powerful, punch way above their weight. In 2010 just 0.01% of Americans accounted for a quarter of all the money given to politicians, parties and political action committees. If anything this makes the loosening of donation rules more damning, not less. For at a time of escalating economic inequality and declining social mobility, the pool of politicians' paymasters will shrink even further.

In a system where money is considered speech, and corporations are people, this trend is inevitable. Elections become not a system of participatory engagement determining how the country is run, but the best democratic charade that money can buy. People get a vote; but only once money has decided whom they can vote for and what the agenda should be. The result is a plutocracy that operates according to the golden rule: that those who have the gold make the rules."


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"This should come as no surprise. Rich people don't come by their wealth by giving it away for nothing. And these are not charitable donations. When they give cash to politicians they expect something in return. And they get it. Money buys access and access permits influence.

At times this is blatant. Roughly 30% of diplomatic posts in Barack Obama's administration have gone to friends and donors. A study by Pennsylvania State University professors last year established an approximate price for ambassadorships. Ambassador to Portugal would set you back $341,160 in bundled contributions; Luxembourg $1.8m; while Britain could cost you anything up to $2.3m. In a recent segment called Diplomat Buyers Club, comedian Jon Stewart showed Obama's picks for the ambassadors of Argentina, Iceland and Norway (all donors), testifying that they have never been to the countries they sought jobs for.

But it's also about who doesn't get to speak. Candidates are likely to hear less on the campaign trail about how the war on drugs is blighting black and Latino neighbourhoods, or how poverty is reducing the life expectancy of poor white women, because those people don't get a seat at the table.

Either way, when chief supreme court justice John Roberts quotes the Citizen's United ruling, claiming "ingratiation and access … are not corruption", he is clearly working from a narrow and disingenuous definition of corruption.

Last year, three members of the House of Representatives pleaded guilty to, or were convicted of, crimes – the highest number since 1981 – while the former mayors of Detroit and New Orleans, among others, were convicted of, or charged with, felonies. Earlier this year the former Virginia governor, Bob McDonnell, was indicted for accepting loans and gifts in return for favours. Just two weeks ago the mayor of Charlotte, North Carolina, resigned over a bribery scandal. Neither has been convicted of any offence. Corruption is already a major problem in American politics. The highest court in the land has just made it both more likely, and more legal."


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