No, Money Doesn’t Buy Elections

We’ve all heard it. Especially now with two big name candidates making it one of their central messages. Both Bernie Sanders from the Democratic party and Donald Trump from the Republican party have talked about the need to get “big money” out of politics. Let’s ignore for now the incredible audacity for a billionaire “self-funding” his campaign to talk about big money in that way.

Certainly a major reason why people say we need campaign finance reform is because we perceive that lobbyists exert undue influence on candidates after the election because of the money they donated to their campaigns. But at its core, we fear that this nebulous, sinister, shadowy “big money” buys elections, distorts the will of the people, and subverts democracy.

But does it actually?

We The Problem: The Real Reason American Politics is Dysfunctional

“All politics is local.”

You’ve probably heard that phrase before, but its meaning goes deeper than you might realize. Picture your congressperson. What do you think is their primary function, their purpose in Congress after you voted for and elected them? Is it to represent your interests to the nation or is it to do what is best for the entire country? The two are often in conflict. When a choice has to be made, which should your representative choose to prioritize?

Money is Speech

As the election season ramps up, we have a candidate in each major party making a rallying cry out of getting big money out of politics. And as their rhetoric gets louder so too do the number of people who rail on about money not being speech and corporations and billionaires buying elections.