Some have called this 2012 election historic, reasoning that it has ushered in the most female senators in U.S. history and had the highest turnout of Latino voters in any election thus far. While this is certainly significant, this past election was particularly historic in the fact that presidential campaign spending reached its highest level in American history, with collective spending between President Barack Obama and former Gov. Mitt Romney nearly reaching two billion dollars. This increase in spending wasn’t limited to the presidential race, however. Congressional races around the country also experienced large increases in campaign spending, with some outside groups spending more than the candidates themselves.
Much of this influx in spending can be attributed to the controversial Supreme Court case Citizens United v. FEC 2010, in which the Supreme Court ruled that due to the First Amendment, corporate funding of independent political broadcasts in candidate elections cannot be limited. This essentially gave corporations the same rights as people, thus allowing them to spend virtually unlimited amounts of money in political elections.
As a result of this groundbreaking ruling, many Super PACs have emerged across the country. These Super PACs have increased the amount of campaign spending in elections nationwide by allowing corporations, unions and individuals to support candidates through unlimited and often anonymous contributions. And while Super PACs are prohibited from collaborating with or contributing directly to a candidate, they are still able to run ads that support the candidate or attack their candidate’s opponent. In the past year, their influence has been unprecedented, with Super PACs spending a total of $629 million in the presidential election.
These rollbacks on campaign finance regulations and the increased amount of political influence from Super PACs are giving the very rich and big corporations more power than ever before. Of course, it’s not a surprise that corporations and big business already have tremendous influence over our democracy. For example, during the BP oil spill, The Minerals Management Service, a government agency responsible for regulating deep-sea oil drilling, was found to have been corrupted by oil companies. The MMS was discovered to have waived inspection forms, allowed the oil companies to revise their own multi-million dollar leasing bids, and permitted drilling in regions with no oversight. In exchange, the MMS received gifts and money from the oil companies. These companies will stop at nothing, even if it means destroying the environment to get rid of regulations and make bigger and bigger profits.
Another relevant example of the extraordinary power corporations and the very rich have over our government can be seen in our tax code. Currently, loop holes exist in our federal tax code that allow millionaires like Romney, for example, to pay a lower percentage of their total income in taxes than most middle-class Americans. Thus, the rich and powerful get to keep more and more money while the middle class suffers.
It’s clear that corporations and big business already have too much power in government, so just think of the consequences now that they are able to virtually give unlimited amounts of money to the candidate of their choosing. This enables them to essentially hand-pick political candidates that will support their profit-driven agendas and back them with large amounts of money, giving them a significant advantage in the election. Instead of everyday Americans choosing the candidate they think best represents their beliefs, you instead have a system in which the rich and powerful have an unprecedented amount of influence, allowing them to elect candidates that will implement their agendas.
Democracy is supposed to be by the people for the people—not a system in which the rich and powerful decide what’s best for everyone. But when we neglect to limit the amount of campaign money that big business and corporations are able to spend in elections, then it is them, not the people, that truly decide.
Let us know what you think by sending a letter to the editor to opinion@dailycardinal.com.
