Wealthy donors and corporations have too much power in elections, according to Americans in a national poll. The Supreme Court’s 2010 Citizens United decision remains unpopular with two-thirds of them.
(Donkey Hotey, Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0)
And they’d like the government to do something about it.
Nearly 8-in-10 respondents agreed with the statement that “anti-corruption rules strengthen our democracy and constitutional rights by ensuring everyone has equal political representation, regardless of money,” according to the YouGov poll commissioned by the political watchdog group Issue One, which advocates for stricter money-in-politics regulations.
Just 1-in-10 respondents in the poll conducted from Oct. 7 to 15 agreed with the statement that “anti-corruption rules weaken our democracy and constitutional rights by infringing on free speech protected by the First Amendment.”
Nearly 8-in-10 also said they either “strongly agree” or “somewhat agree” that large independent expenditures by wealthy donors and corporations in elections give rise to corruption, or the appearance of corruption.” Just over 1-in-10 said they “somewhat disagree” or “strongly disagree” with the statement.
“These perceptions of corruption are corrosive to the foundation of our democracy. Our political system cannot function if the public assumes the government is for sale to the highest bidder,” said Michael Beckel, Issue One’s senior research director. (Beckel previously worked at OpenSecrets.)
The Supreme Court’s 2010 decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, which allowed corporations, unions and political nonprofits to spend unlimited amounts of money to advocate for and against political candidates, received relatively stronger support among those polled.
Nevertheless, it remained unpopular overall: Almost two-thirds of Americans — including 73 percent of Democrats, 53 percent of Republicans and 61 percent of independents — said they disagree with the Citizens United decision, which gave rise to unlimited, difficult-to-trace “dark money” in politics and helped supercharge political vehicles such as super PACs.
Fewer than 1-in-10 respondents said they “strongly agree” that corporations and labor unions have a First Amendment right to spend unlimited money to influence elections. In contrast, four in 10 said they “strongly disagree” with the decision.
Still, the influence of money in politics didn’t crack the top five issues cited as the most important facing the United States today, ranking behind “inflation and rising costs,” “jobs and the economy,” “too much power in the hands of the president,” “polarization and extremism,” “immigration and border security,” “housing and homelessness,” “healthcare policy, including Medicare and Medicaid” and “crime and public safety.”
But it did poll higher than numerous other national issues, including “climate change and the environment,” “education,” “LGBTQ rights,” “substance abuse and the opioid crisis,” “infrastructure and transportation” and “income inequality.”
Men (31 percent) and the college educated (28 percent) were most likely to list money in politics among their top five issues, according to the poll.
The survey also specifically polled voters in Montana regarding a proposed 2026 ballot measure known as the “Montana Plan,” which aims to curb corporate and dark money spending in the state’s elections by novel means: amending state corporate charter laws.
This, too, proved popular among voters, with nearly 3-in-4 Montana voters saying they’d vote in favor of the ballot measure.
“These new findings show that people in every corner of the state — and across party lines — want a government that works for all of us, not just those with the deepest pockets,” Issue One Policy Lead Liana Keesing said.
But some election law scholars and First Amendment advocates are skeptical about the Montana Plan’s legality.
“The state cannot condition a benefit (in this case, the right to incorporate) on citizens giving up their constitutional rights,” said Institute for Free Speech President Brad Smith, a former Federal Election Commission chairman.
Beyond Money
The poll also indicated a strong majority of Americans are dubious about the role technology and social media companies play in politics.
Nearly 7-in-10 polled — including 76 percent of Democrats, 61 percent of Republicans and 64 percent of independents — said they have “too much” influence in politics.
Politicians and political parties didn’t fare much better, as a majority of voters considered President Donald Trump (52 percent), billionaire Elon Musk (53 percent), the Republican Party (54 percent) and the Democratic Party (56 percent) to either be “very unfavorable” or “somewhat unfavorable.”
The poll was based on 1,036 online interviews conducted by YouGov of registered voters. It has a margin of error of 3.3 percent.
Dave Levinthal is a Washington, D.C.-based investigative journalist. He served as OpenSecrets’ editorial and communications director from 2009 to 2011.
This article was originally published by OpenSecrets, a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization that tracks money in politics.
View the original article.
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Nothing will change until we disrupt the ruling class official narrative that convinces the masses that what the monied class promotes as reality is in fact a distortion of reality. It has been disturbingly effective and has led us to the brink of catastrophe on multiple levels. They have created a world of illusion that has made them obscenely rich and the majority poorer and poorer. It’s long past time to flip the script.
Attempts to end corruption in government caused by billionaires manipulating our system will never succeed as long as there are billionaires. In a “free-market” economy where billionaires can own all the TV and radio stations, as well as newspapers, they control the flow of information to the public and to government officials. You will never fix that problem with a few laws limiting campaign donations, because you will have done nothing to fix the information space issues. There are many other problems that campaign finance laws will not fix, including behind-the-scenes collusion between government agencies and billionaires with agendas. That occurs in all societies with a very wealthy class. The best way to take power from the billionaires is a billionaire wealth tax of 95%. If you take their money away, you take their power away.
They’d like things change…
‘They’d like’ won’t change anything!
Good to see that many are somewhat aware of the institutional corruption. SCOTUS (Citizens United and much more) makes a mockery of democracy, the law, and has formalized political bribery.
A quote that few want to remember: “The US is an oligarchy with unlimited political bribery” (Jimmy Carter)
The Orwellian euphemisms we see in the vast majority of public discourse in the US describe bribe-masters as “philanthropists” “tech moguls”, not oligarchs monopolists who receive billions in gov contracts and subsidies. Politicians don’t receive bribes, they get “contributions” from “donors” (oligarchs).
Elections Inc. are stage-managed PR stunts to divide, distract, entertain the public while the oligarchy gains control of even more wealth and power. It works like a charm, every time.