How the Wealthy Wage War on Democracy Itself

By Sonali Kolhatkar, Truthdig

25 October 13

f the Supreme Court's 2010 Citizens United ruling was not devastating enough for American democracy, a new case could wipe away any remaining vestige of election integrity. The nation's highest court heard oral arguments in McCutcheon v. Federal Election Commission this month. If the court rules in favor of Alabama mining CEO Shaun McCutcheon, rich Americans could make unlimited amounts of campaign contributions directly to political candidates and parties. Currently, the federal limit for individual contributions is $123,000 over two years, a figure that the majority of Americans don't even earn as basic income during that time span.

The conservative National Review recently published a critique of what author Ammon Simon called "the Left's fear tactics" over sounding the alarm on this new potential deregulation of money in elections. Simon begins by making the case that money does not in fact influence elections, citing several questionable studies that, according to him, prove "the evidence just doesn't lend itself to the ‘legalized corruption' theme."

But he then contradictorily laments "the misguided belief that we can regulate away money's influence over the political system." The conservative admiringly points out that, "Historically, campaign-finance laws have always been undermined by innovative workarounds."

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