Influence of wealthy donors

Both Democrats and Republicans brag about their success raising money for the presidential election.

Democrats raised millions in star-studded galas featuring President Biden, celebrities and his presidential predecessors, Obama and Clinton. Donald Trump had his own gala, too, but his donations increased especially after he was convicted of interfering with the 2016 election.

A recent report said 50 very wealthy American families have alone contributed $600 million for the 2024 election, two-thirds of it designated for Republicans. Estimates are it will exceed $2 billion to elect a president this time.

If elections were publicly funded, candidates would be limited to equal and reasonable amounts of money to run campaigns. The election cycle would be shortened dramatically and voters would not be subjected to tiresome campaigning for months on end. Thanks to Citizens United there’s no chance for publicly financed elections.

Before 2010 there were limitations on the amount of money that could be donated to candidates. A Supreme Court decision changed all that. In Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, the U.S. Supreme Court deregulated limits on money that could be spent for or against specific candidates.

The court based their decision on a First Amendment right for political speech and said it should not depend on the status of speakers. They ruled speakers in support of a candidate could be a person or an association of people – or even corporations. That decision turned on the spigot of campaign dollars and ever since, we’ve been awash in money-driven elections.

The court’s decision dramatically expanded the influence of wealthy donors, corporations and special interest groups, who now spend unlimited amounts on campaign financing. Before the decision, there were rules to prevent unfairness, but now there are untold amounts of so-called “dark money” in campaigns with limited information about the sources.

Political groups can be funded with dollars from unidentified individuals and corporations. With few rules, these groups receive enormous amounts of cash and can spend it on messages that are misleading and outright false. These falsehoods often derive from foreign sources like Russia and China who hope Americans will elect politicians favorable to them. Amazingly, there are many Americans willing to spread their propaganda.

Mike Turner and Michael McCaul, both influential Republican Congressmen, warned recently, “Russian propaganda has infected the GOP base.” Everyone should question the information they’re repeating. Much of the crazy stuff on Tik Tok, and conspiracy theories consumed and reposted online by low-information voters, are produced by foreign, anti-American sources.

Although voters should know the source behind the information they consume, it’s often impossible to determine. Some advertising, and over-the-top fabrications posted on social media are definitely fueled by propaganda from Russia, China and domestic extremists. Unfortunately, most of us are not sophisticated enough to detect the difference.

Much of the funding for campaigns is from individual donations – those $25 checks from millions of different people – some donating month after month, year after year. Then, there’s the heavy-duty donors, the multi-billion-dollar corporations and the millionaires and billionaires who donate, mostly to Republicans they’re depending on to give them tax cuts.

Such was the case at Trump’s Mar-A-Lago gala. It was an invitation-only affair where millionaire and billionaire attendees each contributed $250,000. There’s no mystery as to why they donate that kind of money. Rich people benefited overwhelmingly from the tax cuts passed in 2017 by Trump and the Republican Congress - far more than middle class and low-income citizens ever benefit when Congress cuts taxes.

Trump bragged to his wealthy friends at the time, “I just made you a lot richer.”

New legislation to continue those tax cuts must be enacted next year. No wonder the rich are donating to Trump this election. He promised the wealthy crowd at the Mar-A-Lago event, if he’s elected, he will extend those tax cuts. He’s told oil executives, if they’ll give him $1 billion for his campaign, he’ll roll back Biden’s climate- change initiatives. That is buying people’s votes, and violates campaign finance laws.

So, how to pay for more tax cuts for billionaires? First, they’ll blow an even bigger hole in the deficit – like the last one did. Food, nutrition and other programs that make American families’ lives better, will be reduced. And they’ll try to cut Social Security, Medicare and Obamacare. That’s how.