Follow the money

Since the US Supreme Court ruled in Citizens United in 2010 that a corporation is a person  and has the same free speech rights, a corporation can donate an unlimited amount of money to political campaigns giving them the power to buy politicians who will promote their corporate interests even at the expense of the people the politician is sworn to represent and serve.

Citizens United has allowed the oligarchs to take over the US government. The costs of federal elections doubled in the last decade from $6.5 billion in 2016 to $14.8 billion in 2024. This explosive rise in campaign spending had come from corporations and not from the constituents in the politicians district. In 2024 only 17.6% of campaign money for house races came from the candidates home states, and 27.5% for senate races. This is a stark contrast to 20 years ago when the vast majority of contributions were from local donors whom the politicians were campaigning to serve. (For more click here.)

If citizens are to protect and further nurture democratic processes they need to know who is buying their politicians allegiance. He who pays the fiddler, calls the tune. So the news behind the news is who is funding social policy development and implementation for what interests? In other words, if a student wants to better understand the workings of democracy in the US, follow the money. 

The buying of politicians is such a significant issue for the functioning of our democracy, MarkhamsSlowNews will be reporting on this topic regularly.

2/3 of Americans worried about the future of democracy.

 

What do you think about the future of democracy?

If you are worried about democracy's future, specifically what are your three biggest worries?

Having identified the threats to the future of democracy what can you do to minimize or eliminate them?

People are not free who are lied to and don't know it.

Thomas Jefferson and some of the other founding fathers seemed to believe that an educated citizenry is a requisite for the effective execution of democratic processes.

Stupid people, especially when they believe conspiracy theories and engage in mob violence, are harmful to democratic government as the founding fathers well understood and attempted to create a republic rather than a direct democracy.

In the U.S. we have seen signs and symptoms of fascism arising, the most worrisome sign being that people no longer believe in voting as a primary component of the democratic process. The GOP has been trying to suppress the citizens' rights to vote and have adopted a belief that if their candidates don't win in an election the election process is corrupt. This places democracy in great peril of authoritarian rule.

Most people don't seem to understand the basics of the system, and truth and facts don't matter because without a basic understanding of the system, there isn't the ability to comprehend claims that the fascists are making. A good example of this just occurred in the winners across the country of GOP candidates who promote the big lie and undermine trust in the electoral process without any evidence.

Decades ago "civics" was eliminated from many states' grade school curricula and now we are seeing the consequences in a large percentage of the citizenry who are easily duped, conned, and scammed. People are not free when they are lied to and they are too ignorant to know it.

Ranked choice voting

 

Rank choice voting is also called "instant run off voting." 

Rank choice voting undoes the political polarization of the two party duopoly that paralyzes the democratic process in most of the United States.