Money & Elections
Money always had a role in American elections, but its determinative value has grown exponentially over the last half-century. Campaigns didn't use to be perpetual, they'd last a month or two. Campaign organizations were largely contained inside the parties, the main medium of communication was person to person. With the total domination of broadcast media, person to person communication, not just in politics, but across the societal spectrum diminished and disappeared. With television as the main communication medium, along with radio, mail, telephone soliciting, and now the internet, marketing and advertising became the main methods of politics — marketing and advertising aren't politics. Candidates spent an increasing amount of time not talking to voters, but to people who give money, people who give all want something.
Simply focusing on the role of money in elections was always unhelpful in understanding America's greater democratic decline. Single minded advocacy of failed campaign finance laws as cure only made the problem more acute. The Chicago Sun Times has a nice article on the complete failure of election money reforms titled, “Big money, big problems. Deep-pocketed, self-funding candidates and dark money mar Illinois politics.” The article begins with the current Democratic governor's last election strategy of promoting a weaker candidate in the Republican primary. “Pritzker’s $24 million contribution to the Democratic Governors’ Association led to a hefty ad buy that painted Republican primary candidate Darren Bailey as ‘too conservative for Illinois’— a crafty strategy aimed at actually fortifying Bailey’s standing among conservative Republicans.”
Clever is a better word than crafty. The cleverness of America's political class will be the death of us all. The article continues,
“It’s just one example of the influence of money in Illinois politics — and the disingenuous ways in which it’s sometimes used. It’s not always about what’s best for voters and their own political beliefs and values. It’s about winning. And to the power players and their camps, it’s 'just politics.'”
The article gets to the nut,
“In the Land of Lincoln and across the country, money is power, and some candidates are using every legal loophole they can find to win, especially in light of a 2010 Supreme Court decision that allowed individuals and corporations to funnel unlimited funds to super PACs.”
Of the constitution's mandated institutions, the Supreme Court was the most undemocratic. Historically, the Court has been most instrumental in enfranchising the now unchecked and unbalanced power of mega-corporations. The real problem is we have archaic institutions that without radical reform continue to become ever more undemocratic.
With the dominance of money, those good at raising money came to dominate every aspect of the process. A recent article referred to a person as a “fundraiser/strategist.” That made me laugh out loud. Long ago, the idea of a fundraiser/strategist was ridiculous. Team Biden looks to raise and spend $2 billion this year to save democracy, so we are cleverly assured by his campaign business strategists.