Role of Finances and Media

¶ … ROLE OF FINANCES AND MEDIA IN U.S. POLITICAL ELECTIONS

The Problem of Campaign Financing in American Politics

There is a fundamental and systemic problem in contemporary American politics: namely, the tremendous influence of campaign contributors to election and re-election campaign funds of political representatives (Kennedy, 2006). On one hand, direct payment from citizens and special interest lobbies are expressly prohibited because they would constitute bribery and undue political influence. On the other hand, a government lobbying industry has evolved in which special interest groups, industry representatives, and individual corporations routinely contribute many millions of dollars annually to the election and re-election campaigns of political representatives. In theory, these financial contributions are not in contemplation of any expected return, such as in the form of congressional votes or presidential action. However, critics rightfully point out that this is a very thinly veiled fiction. In fact, virtually the only reason that Washington lobbyists spend so much time and money on political campaigns is precisely because they do expect that their recipients will vote in favor of legislation that furthers their interests and that they will vote against legislation that is contrary to their (usually financial) interests (Kennedy, 2006).

Typical examples of the pervasive lobbying in Washington would include the billions spent by tobacco companies, healthcare conglomerates, and oil industry lobbyists to the political campaigns of congressional representatives and presidential candidates. Once elected, the recipients of those contributions know full well that decisions on their part that do not support the interests of contributors will certainly result in cessation of those contributions in future re-election campaigns. Given the importance of campaign fundraising in the contemporary political climate, it is very difficult for campaign contribution recipients to disappoint their financial supporters.

Recent Changes to Law and Policy

In 2010, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a highly controversial ruling in the case known as Citizens United (Liptak, 2010). In that case, a sharply-divided (5-4) court ruled that corporations are entitled to the same free speech rights that apply to the rights of private individuals with respect to political speech, the type of speech entitled to the greatest legal protection under the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution (Edwards, Wattenberg, & Lineberry, 2009). The reason that the decision is so potentially harmful to the nation is that it permits corporate entities to contribute virtually unlimited amounts to their own privately-funded political advertisement (Liptak, 2010).

The implication of the Citizens United case is that corporate conglomerates, powerful industries, and even foreign governments could purchase unlimited amounts of media airtime on American public media to promote the election of some candidates or to oppose the election of others (Liptak, 2010). Realistically, the amount of federally authorized public funding (USFEC, 2011) is absolutely inconsequential by comparison.

Necessary Changes