Back at the beginning of this decade, in January, 2010, the United States Supreme Court ruled that the government can’t restrict so-called “independent expenditures” for communications by just about any group, labor, corporate, anonymous or otherwise.
That 5 to 4 decision essentially guaranteed that from now on, we will have the best — or worst — governments that money can buy. As a result, something approaching $100 million dollars may be spent on Michigan’s governor’s race before it is through.
There has already been spent at least $17 million dollars on a race for a single seat in Congress, the one now held by Republican Mike Bishop, who is being challenged by Democrat Elissa Slotkin. This is for a two-year term in a body that has 435 members.
Does this make any sense to you? Does it make any sense to anyone? I’m sure Citizens United was greeted happily by the broadcast TV and radio networks, which is where most of the campaign money gets spent. I don’t know about the special interests themselves, who now have to pay more per politician. I do know that no matter who wins any given election, this is absolutely horrible for politics, government and democracy.
Here’s why I am saying that: People who give large sums of money usually –make that almost always – want something for it. The AFSCME government workers union, for example has given the Whitmer campaign $750,000 so far. It would be strictly illegal if they were to say, “We are giving you money with the understanding that you are going to try to overturn the right to work legislation passed in Michigan, or at least work to lessen its impact.”
But you know very well what they want, and so do all concerned. Today, the sad and ugly truth is that nobody can run for governor, Congress or even the legislature without either being independently wealthy, or agreeing to seek vast sums of money from special interest groups.
John Roberts, the Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, calls this free speech. But anyone with an ounce of common sense knows that it nonsense.
What Citizens United did was give special interests license to buy our elections. Oh, sure. you can try to run without huge sums. Martin Brook did, this spring, seeking the Democratic nomination for an open seat in Congress.
He is a lawyer in his early 50s who had worked in Washington as a congressional page as a kid, and whose uncle, James Blanchard, was governor of Michigan 30 years ago.
Brook worked during the day, campaigned on nights and weekends, and raised and spent about $30,000. He’s the kind of guy our Founding Fathers probably imagined going to Washington. His opponents were career politicians who did nothing else but run for Congress, and each raised about a million dollars. Martin Brook got five percent of the vote.
Money is not only the mother’s milk of politics, it is the oxygen and blood supply, and he oligarchy, that is, the special interest groups, have an enormous advantage.
True, sometimes a candidate spending $8 million may lose to one who spent only $7 million, but don’t look for any upsets by the likes of Martin Brook, and there is something infinitely sad about that. More than ever, American politics is a place where those who have the gold make the rules. Something has to change, or you can look for the democracy we once had in a museum somewhere, between eight track tapes and the Passenger Pigeon.
(Today’s Photo courtesy of mcfn.org)
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
