Published in the Center City Concerned Citizens Review Philadelphia PA November, 2023

By Joseph Batory

A disturbing recent presentation on the PBS News Hour by two respected political commentators recently emphasized that the upcoming presidential election will likely be decided by whoever has the most money via campaign contributions. Sadly, in that televised dialogue, these two commentators made no mention of the positions of the candidates on important  issues (climate change, poverty, education, gun control, the economy, health insurance costs etc.) facing America, only who has the most money.

Sadly, the thesis of these two commentators is probably correct. Money interests are ruling our nation!  We owe this unfortunate reality to Supreme Court decisions like Citizens United which opened the door for big money to control the USA elections. Billionaires and corporations and ideologues now use SUPER PACs to pour unlimited amounts of money into campaigns, fabricating their own agenda for ordinary Americans to endorse. In addition, dark money groups hide the identities of their donors so in these cases, heaven only knows who or what purposes are controlling the minds of voters.

Michael Boos, vice president and general counsel of Citizens United, the conservative nonprofit organization which obtained the Supreme Court ruling on political spending, offered this absurd rationalization: “This Supreme Court decision stands for freedom and encourages participation in the political process.”

And Justice Anthony Kennedy writing the majority opinion of the 5-4 Supreme Court  decision re Citizens United naively agreed. “The fact that a corporation, or any other speaker, is willing to spend money to try to persuade voters presupposes that the people have the ultimate influence over elected officials.”

However, much more accurately, these SUPER PAC messages bought by big money have in fact replaced or at least greatly reduced  citizen analysis and thinking.

SUPER PACs  are hardly about enlightening voters but rather much more about “spoon feeding” their political propaganda to the masses.  These dollars poured into elections by these SUPER PACs are designed to manipulate USA voting for vested interests while often obscuring America’s critical issues and  supporting the agendas of only the wealthy and the powerful.

The bottom line is that political campaigns that spend the most money will almost always create the winners at all levels of government. Examples of money driving this success have now proliferated everywhere at all levels of government in our nation, even in Philadelphia.

The common good as the purpose/goal of government at all levels has  been lost. Following the agenda of political benefactors rules elected official decision-making.

What have we become when money is really all that matters?!

_______________________________________________________

(Joseph Batory is the author of three books and nearly 300 published articles on education, politics, and history.)