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President Barack Obama and his wife Michelle applaud supporters after results showed he had been returned to the White House for a second term . Copyright Craig Warga/New York Daily News.
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These
staggering figures do not include the very significant contributions of independent
groups which cannot be legally tied to a candidate but can generally support
their cause or policies. According to the New York Times, these independent groups spent at least $522 million on television advertisements and other
efforts to sway voters’ choice of candidate.
The
biggest of these ‘political action committees’ can raise vast amounts of money
from individuals, corporations and trade unions. And herein lies the threat to
American democracy. New analysis of pre-election data from the Federal Election
Commission (FEC) by the consumer group US PIRG reveals that much of the
election campaign spending by independent groups has been fuelled by ‘dark
money and unlimited fundraising from a small number of wealthy donors’.
“On
Election Day, we're all supposed to have an equal say. However, over the course
of the election a small group of millionaires and billionaires have had more
influence than millions of middle class families,” wrote Blair Bowie and AdamLioz in a Huffington Post blog days before the election. It
is a discomfort shared by most American citizens who believe in the sanctity of
their democracy and the egalitarianism that lies at its centre.
“It’s
really not democratic, most American do not agree with the level of money in
politics,” a young American studying in London told the BBC on Wednesday.
The
prominence of big money in the world’s leading democracy is even more jarring
when viewed from across the Atlantic. It makes UK election spending look
miniscule by comparison. According to the BBC, a total of £31 million was spent
by all parties in the 2010 general election, making US spending 120 times as
much.
Obama and
Romney both chose to refuse public funding, preferring to rely on their private
efforts and avoid any caps on their spending. However, the case for public
financing of election candidates remains strong if influence peddling by
powerful interests is to be kept from distorting democracy.
Without public
funding or caps on private election war chests, it is inevitable that only big
money candidates will ever afford to make a bid for the White House. Less
resourced candidates are doomed to obscurity, regardless of how loudly their
policies may resonate with voters. In the end, democracy is the biggest loser.
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