Its Hard to Stop the Political Money-Train

Its Hard to Stop the Political Money-Train

A recent week’s Case Study was surrounding FollowTheMoney.org and efforts to bring transparency to political campaign donations. We all know that politics is big business and in this political arena money definitely talks. Recently NPR published an article where the U.S. Presidential Candidate hopefuls (Bernie Sanders, Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump) discuss the issue of political campaign donations which is a bigger issue now than in any time in history.

All of the above mentioned candidates identify “political money” as a talking point, and Bernie Sanders even opened his speech with “We have today a campaign finance system which is corrupt, which is undermining American democracy, which allows Wall Street and billionaires to pour huge sums of money into the political process."

The best solutions presented to correct the corruption in political finances is to 1). Elect Supreme Court Justices who will overturn the Citizen’s United Ruling or 2). Amend the constitution to empower Congress to limit political spending. Really… is that the best solution you have Presidential hopefuls? Why not just say “I am not interested in presenting a realistic solution to the political corruption of this country”. In this political climate, it is an “act of Congress” (meaning it will never happen) in order to make any political decision given the lack of cooperation between the political parties. Their best solution to this major issue can take several years to accomplish in addition to having political cooperation that we have not seen on issues in a long time.

Also, it is very funny that the candidates who benefit from huge political donations are the ones who are vowing to stop it. Now why would they stop their own money trains? Sounds like a bunch of political dodge-ball to me. Political transparency has a long way to go.

http://www.npr.org/2016/02/14/466668949/presidential-candidates-pledge-to-undo-citizens-united-but-can-they?utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=storiesfromnpr