Campaign Finance Essay Research Paper No matter

Campaign Finance Essay, Research Paper

.No matter what your social issue, if you want to solve it get the money out

of politics. Only then will lawmakers vote for their people rather than their

pocketbooks.. Jack E. Lohman. Money corrupts politics, and when contributions

are being made to candidates it is not in the best interest of the American

people. Campaign Finance is out of control in today.s political races.

Candidates are taking money from wherever and whoever they can get it. Soft

money is flowing through elections without care or caution. People who make

these contributions do not share the views of the average citizen, so

politicians end up representing the wrong people. Money decides races, sometimes

leaving the better man but lighter spender out of a position. Candidates make

decisions based on what will help them financially that what is better for the

people. Contributions by industry are made not in the interest of the people,

sometimes hurting them in ways they don.t even know. No matter what the

opposition may say campaign finance reform is needed urgently to keep our

democracy as our founders intended it. People and corporations that make the

largest donations to campaigns do not share views with the general population.

Politicians will listen to those who give them money so that they can depend on

that money being there again when it is time for reelection. Yet individual

donors making a $200 dollar or more contribution make up only .33% of the

population. This extremely small percentage of mostly wealthy individuals gain

the power to influence politicians to their liking. The idea that these people

should have power to affect government more than those with less money goes

against the concept of equality for all, which is what made this country great.

People who make large donations do not share the same views on most issues as

the general population. Robert L. Borosage and Ruy Teixeira report that while 53

percent of voters want stricter regulations on businesses and corporations, to

give workers a fair salary and working conditions, 58 percent of campaign donors

want to see less control over the businesses and corporations of America. Donors

also want less government spending with lower taxes, while the majority of

citizens want a larger, more powerful government. A very tiny part of our

population is giving money to campaigns telling candidates what they have to do

to continue getting campaign contributions, yet these people do not represent

the ideology and sentiment of the people as a whole. There must be a change in

the way that campaigns are financed if democracy is to survive. If we do not

reform campaign finance we will have politicians working only for those who can

afford to contribute. Money is the major factor in any political race. It can

sway a decision very strongly depending on how well it is used. In the House,

the candidate who spends the most money on his or her campaign wins 92% of the

time. Things are no different in the Senate, here 88% of the time the bigger

spender wins. Incumbents are usually the tip money spender, because they raise

more money. Paul Starr, writer for The American Prospect , estimates that it

would take $1,000,000 for a challenger to defeat the incumbent. The only way a

challenger could get this kind of money would be to appeal to big business and

the wealthy, who have radically different ideas about government than the

general public. A challenger, to even have a chance, would have to turn to

business and wealth to win. With this great difficulty to de-seat an incumbent,

turnover in congress drops, and members become stagnant, winning on name alone.

All the while, they are giving breaks to the corporations and wealthy people who

got them there. With campaigns finance reform, we could get challengers and

incumbents on a level playing field so that the candidate with the better ideas

who will honestly help the majority will end up the victor. It would not matter

much where candidates got the money from for their campaigns except that when

elected, politicians act on in accordance to the wishes of those who have made

donations. 71% of citizens say that a politicians choices and votes are made on

the basis of money. 61% of donors agree with this. Its been explained that a

small percentage of people make donations, and these people do not represent the

population as a whole. If politicians make decisions based on this small group

of people they are not representing the entire population ,or doing what is best

for the majority, as they were hired to do. Politicians realize where they get

funding and work to please those with the money. Robert Reich estimates that

half of all Americans with a million dollar a year income or greater have had

their picture taken with the president. All this attention is going to a group

t

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