Description: Money in politics has been a problem for many years in terms of both the influence it has and the time and effort our elected officials devote to fundraising. The 2010 Citizens United decision by the U.S. Supreme Court and subsequent federal court decisions have undermined our democracy.
Money in politics has been a problem for many years in terms of both the influence it has and the time and effort our elected officials devote to fundraising. An outstanding This American Life radio program gives a penetrating view of the problems that money has caused in the past in the words of both politicians and lobbyists. We the People are one people, but some of us have been given a much louder voice. The 2010 Citizens United decision by the U.S. Supreme Court and subsequent federal court decisions —
And the power of these contributions has been intensified by the increasing concentration of wealth in the top one percent of our population.
As economist and former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich puts it: “This extraordinary concentration of income, wealth, and political power at the very top imperils all else — our economy, our democracy, the revival of the American middle class, the prospects for the poor and for people of color, the necessity of slowing and reversing climate change, and a sensible foreign policy not influenced by the “military-industrial complex,” as President Dwight Eisenhower once called it.”