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How Big Bucks Destroy Democracy

By Shlomo Maital  

        In democracy, one person, one vote.  That’s fair.

        But in one democracy, the US, one person, with $277 million, buys massive influence and control over everyone, dismantling worthy government projects with a chain saw.    

        There ought to be a law, limiting big bucks influence like this. Once there was.  But it was changed in 2010, creating and enabling super PAC’s.   In the 2024 election cycle, there were 2,458 super PACs that raised $4,290,768,955 and spent $2,727,234,077.  Over $4.3 billion.  Imagine what could be done, for healthcare, education, poverty, food stamps, … with that money.

          “Independent expenditure-only political action committees, better known as super PACs, are a type of political action committee (PAC). …Unlike traditional PACs, super PACs are legally allowed to fundraise unlimited amounts of money from individuals or organizations for the purpose of campaign advertising.”  The law was further changed, enabling a single super PAC to actively fund a massive get-out-the-vote pro-Trump campaign in swing states.”  (Note:  Trump won all seven).

          According to Wikipedia:  “Because super PACs were able to coordinate with campaigns on canvassing for the first time in 2024, Donald Trump’s campaign relied on Elon Musk’s America PAC, a super PAC, to lead his get-out-the-vote efforts in swing states.    By the end of Trump’s presidential campaign, Musk had spent $277 million to elect Trump and allied Republicans, making the largest individual political donor of the 2024 election and the largest individual political donor since at least 2010 outside of candidates funding their own campaigns.”

         Now, $277 million is a lot of money.  But for Musk?  It is one half of one per cent of his $424.7 billion personal wealth.   It is not a tax-deductible expense.   But what did Musk buy for that $277 million?    Possibly,  likely — favorable government contracts for SpaceX, and perhaps Tesla and xAI (Grok),  and, for sure, the chain saw he wields in running DOGE Department of Government Efficiency.

         Musk was given unparalleled power.  He got it, by bucks, not by ballots. 

          It is claimed that many members of Trump’s billionaires Cabinet bought their way into their jobs with massive campaign contributions.  NBC noted in December:  “Some of the biggest pro-Trump donors of 2024 are lining up for administration jobs “.

(Spoiler:  Yup. They got them).  Those who didn’t cough up big bucks starred on cable TV (Fox News).    

        Experts note that “while political donations are a legitimate way of participating in the political life of a country and a necessary means to fund electoral campaigns and political parties, restrictions have been imposed in multiple countries. Most OECD countries limit the amounts that natural and legal persons can donate to candidates and parties. Bans on donations from certain types of donors, such as foreign individuals and entities, public entities and corporations have also been adopted in numerous countries

        If you have enough money, you can help elect a President, who appoints Supreme Court Judges, who dismantle restrictions in campaign finance, who then enable people with money to buy influence – and corrupt democracy.  We could have seen this coming in the US, when they scrapped the law about campaign contributions.

        When will democracy return to the US?  When they restore the law that nearly every self-respecting democracy has limiting big bucks’ buying power.  But it’s one of those things that seems easy to corrupt, very very hard to disinfect.