The democracy that Abraham Lincoln envisaged as “of the people, for the
people and by the people”, was one that not only guaranteed that every citizen
has the right to vote but also ensured that every citizen has the right to
contest for elections. The former has largely been achieved, almost every citizen
has a right to vote, but what about contesting for elections? Can anybody with
a desire for public service contest for elections? In theory they can, all the
individual would have to is follow certain mandatory processes and register as
a candidate, this would ensure that the name appears on the ballot. But that is
merely the first step. To influence a whole myriad of potential voters, a
campaign has to be mounted with a wide and deep reach. This is an expensive
affair, an impossible proposition for the average individual with limited
resources. So does one seek funds and what impacts does it have if the
candidate gets elected? Also, can any candidate in contemporary political expect
to win without such a campaign?
Before we attempt to provide answers to all those questions, let’s we back,
all the way to 1755, where George Washington was trounced in his first election.
His defeat taught him that he needed to improve his ‘influence’ over the voter.
Hence, two years later, when he contested for elections again, an innovative
approach was followed where prospective voters treated to a lavish buffet near the
polling booth. The ploy worked and Washington was elected to the Virginia House
of Burgesses. However, the then elected legislature realized that it was
an unfair practice and would present an unfair advantage to wealthy candidates
such as Washington. They therefore promptly passed a law that prevented a
candidate or persons on the candidate from offering prospective voters any sort of inducements to secure their votes. Over the years, various
governments did all they could to regulate the campaign finance such as a naval
appropriations bill in 1867 and The Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act in 1883.
In 1907, President Theodore Roosevelt passed several tough laws that made it
illegal for corporations to contribute financially to politician, or political
committee or for any political purpose. Roosevelt understood the dangers of
giving unlimited control to powerful nonpublic entities. He wanted the real
power to elect a candidate to only be in the hands of the voting public and
nobody else. Over a century after Roosevelt efforts to reform campaign finance,
in 2010, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that independent political expenditures
by unions NGOs, and corporations are protected under the First Amendment and
are not subject to restriction by the government. Thus making it legal not only
for candidates to receive huge monies but also without the compulsion of making
a disclosure. The commitments made to regulate campaign finance thus melted
into thin air
To be fair, the nature of campaigns have changed drastically since
Roosevelt’s time. It is not just conducting town hall meets and visiting
prospective voters at their homes. Modern campaigns are like running a business,
there are huge expenses involved to pay salaries, to run adverts on TV, to manage
a social media campaign, to book venues, to conduct polls and to run campaign
office from multiple locations. For a Presidential campaign the cost could go
as high as half a billion dollars. To understand how high the stakes are, it is
said that Obama and Romney spent a total of 1.7 billion dollars for their
campaigns. Even senate election campaigns has an expenditure over 100 million dollars.
So how does a candidate acquire these sort of funds for his campaign? There
are two options the first is a large number of small donations or a small
number of large donations. The former is clearly the more honorable option, but
often takes time and relies largely on recognition of the candidate. For new
candidates with no name recognition it is an impossible proposition. Hence the
second option has to be chosen. But there are consequences.
Let consider a fictitious scenario, where a Clean Air bill up for a vote
in the Senate. One of the clauses in this bill states that companies that
pollute the environment will be levied with hefty fines. Clean air is a basic
necessity and even a right that every individual has. Hence voting ‘Yes’ to
this bill the moral thing to do, in colloquially parlance it is a ‘no brainer’.
Enter junior Senator John, five companies located in his state are responsible
for polluting the air with harmful gases and each will be fined over millions
of dollars if the Clean Air bill is passed. But matters get complicated, the
proprietors of these very companies had donated a handsome twenty million
dollars each to Senator John’s campaign a few years ago, they have promised identical
amounts for his next campaign, to be launched in six months. Senator John therefore votes against the Clean
Air bill, thus failing to protect his voters from a basic right. The companies
pay his campaign money and he wins the next election. Let’s assume a scenario
where Senator John developed a conscience and voted for the Clean Air bill. The
companies responsible for pollution are not too pleased at the prospect of
paying millions of dollars as fines. They decide to punish Senator John by paying
their twenty million to a rival candidate Tim. Without a well-funded campaign Senator
John finds himself to be a considerably weaker, while candidate Tim with his
well-funded machinery manages to launch vicious attack adverts on Senator John.
Candidate Tim also manages to secure interviews on every local station after
treating them to lavish presents with a promise that they will spread lies and
not give Senator John any air time. In the end Senator John is voted out of
office and candidate Tim is victorious. Upon entering office, Senator Tim votes
against the Clean Air bill, thus keeping his masters happy. In a year Tim does
such a fine job in voting for the interest of the companies that they invite
him to their annual gathering to deliver a lecture, where his words of wisdom
earn him a hundred of thousands of dollars. Quite a turnaround for Senator Tim
who was once a humble lawyer at a district court. Upon retirement Senator Tim continues
delivers speeches for which he is paid and average sum of 200, 000 dollars. In
the same state, for the past three decades, is a well-meaning candidate Bernard
Paul, a doctor by profession. He would have served the people honestly, but
alas Dr. Bernard doesn’t have the resources to run a campaign resulting in him
polling rather poorly. Rival candidates and the local news media have
successfully painted Dr. Bernard to be a loon. Thus the best man for the job simply
has no chance as he is unwilling to strike deal with donors.
The moral of that story is that voting public have an illusion of choice,
but no matter whom they chose the string of these puppets are pulled by the
same masters. If the puppet refuses to dance, he or she is summarily replaced. An
exclusive closed club has been established and it comprises of politicians and
special interests. The special interests fund campaigns and the politician gets
things done for the special interests. It is important for the politician that
the monies keep coming in and it is equally important for the special interest
to maintain the influence over the politician. This is a disease that runs
equally deep in both parties. Not every politician is part of this club, but it
is fair to state that all the politicians who matter are part of this club. The
news media is also a powerful arm of this club and if anybody threatens to
challenge the club, he is hunted out of town by the media hounds. The exclusive
club has been a mandatory stepping stone for anybody who wants to be anybody in
politics i.e. most career politicians.
The only way the establishment could be challenged was if a candidate with
great recognition, a proven track record and the ability to finance his own
campaign was to enter the race. On June 16, 2015, a man fitting this
description brought that hope into reality, the man is Donald J. Trump. He has
made the unholy alliance between big donors and politicians one of the main
issues of his campaign.
But the club that has been standing for decades now was not going to
give up so easily. As expected the attacks have been relentless, from the media
with falsehoods, mischaracterizations, and ridicule. When that didn’t work terms
such as ‘racist’, ‘sexist’, ‘xenophobe’, ‘hateful’ ‘unstable’ were thrown into
the mix. There were attack adverts by members of his own party, targeting Trump
by political opponents and PACs the price tag of which runs into hundreds of
millions of dollars. There was the #NeverTrump movement again by ‘conservatives’.
Left wing groups attacked Trump supporters and shut down his rallies. The media
and his opponents jumped in blaming Trump instead of the perpetrators. Finally fear tactics were employed, where ‘experts’
asserted that Trump would never get to the magic number of 1237 and that there
would be a contested convention where there would be violence that would destroy
the GOP forever. They predicted that it would result in the party being deeply
divided and Hillary would win by a huge margin. It has to be noted that these were
the very people who had predicted that Trump would never ever be a factor in
the primaries.
These vicious attacks have had a devastating effect on the campaign,
Donald Trump has secured the most primary votes in the history of GOP. Trump
has won all of the past seven races with more than 50% of the votes. Trump is
now the presumptive nominee of the party, securing the nomination much earlier
than any of the detractors had predicted. All this by spending the least amount
of money, not taking any money from big donors, no TV ads, and speaking his
mind. As he likes to assert, he is ahead
of schedule and under the budget.
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