American citizens are more disillusioned by our current political system than ever before. The approval rating of congress has reached an all-time low and the American people have little trust in government. What has caused this disintegration of trust amongst the American people toward the government? I know Conservatives hate to hear this, but it has nothing to do with the multiple “Scandals” in the Obama administration. The reason the American people do not trust the government and are no longer as active in the political process is the increased role of money and business interests in politics.

In 2010, two rulings were made that fundamentally transformed the American political system: Citizens United v. The Federal Election Commision and SpeechNOW v. FEC. In the Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission Supreme Court case, the Supreme Court ruled that under the first amendment corporations can provide unlimited independent political funding in candidate elections. This decision allows Corporations to use money from their treasury to support political campaigns indirectly. It was 5-4 decision split along ideological lines with the conservative judges ruling with the majority decision supporting more money in politics. It should be no surprise that the conservative judges voted to allow corporations to donate independent political funding. Corporations tend to be run by people with more conservative leanings, so they are more likely to donate to conservative politicians. Then, using the precedent established in the Citizens United decision, the court of appeals ruled in the SpeechNow v. FEC that limiting donations to independent political organization was a violation of the first ammednamnt. This decision ended the $5000 cap on political contributions. Essentially this supreme court decision legalized bribery among politicians and corporation

These two court decisions were misguided in numerous ways., in the Citizens United Decision the Supreme Court ruled that campaign donations constitute political speech, and political speech is protected by the first amendment. However, allowing corporations to engage in political speech through campaign donations gives the corporations a huge amount of power. Now corporation’s can simply give a large donation to any particular congressman, and the congressman will make policy favorable towards the corporation. Now there are limits to the first amendment. For example, you can’t promote violence under the first amendment; the famous example being “you can’t yell fire in a crowded theatre.”By allowing corporation to engage in political speech under the first amendment, the Supreme Court gave almost all the political power to the corporations. In essence it killed our democracy; now only a small portion of the populations opinions matter, the top 1% , while 99% of the other citizens opinions don’t matter. This is not what the founding fathers envisioned when they wrote the first amendment. These court decisions that take away almost all limits on campaign donations are too detrimental to American society to be protected by the first amendment.

The effect of the Citizen United Supreme Court decision has been astronomical, especially in regard to the spending of outside groups. The Citizen United decision combined with the lower court case SpeechNOW. v. FEC allowed for the creation of super PACs, which are allowed to collect unlimited contributions from corporations, unions, and individuals. While these super PACs can not donate directly to a candidate’s campaign or a political party; they can engage in political activity, like running attack ads against opposing candidates, as long as it is independent of a candidate’s campaign. The development of super PACs caused non-party outside spending to triple from 2008 to 2012, reaching 1 billion dollars.

The greater influence of money has led to an enormous shift in the modern political system. The most important attribute of a potential political candidate used to be how well they could relate to the American citizens. Not Anymore. Now the most important attribute of a political candidate is how well they can fundraise and persuade members of the top 1% to make large donations to their political campaigns. When these politicians propose policy, they no longer have the interests of the American people in mind; they have the interests of the wealthy campaign donors in mind. The Politicians no longer represent the people they represent the wealthy corporations. The politicians want to keep the donors happy, so they propose legislation that benefits large corporations to the detriment of the people.

Money has a major effect on almost every important policy decision. Polls show that most Americans would support stricter gun laws. However, Congress has received more donations to oppose stricter gun laws, so now any sensible law that reasonably restricts gun rights is shot down immediately in congress. Because the gun lobby is stronger and has more money to donate than the anti-gun lobby; the millions of citizens who support common sense gun regulation go unrepresented. Another example of money’s corrupting influence on politics is the Americans for Prosperity organization, founded by the Koch brothers. The Citizen’s United Supreme Court decision allowed the brothers increase their power exponentially. The Koch brothers fund politicians to support policies that deregulate business, destroy all environmental regulations, cut social security, and cut federal funding for education. The Koch brothers donate Billions of dollars for politicians to propose policy that hurt the environment, the young, the old, and the middle class. Because of the current state of our political system, the Koch Brother’s opinions matter more than the opinion of any person in the other 99%.

Now I’m sure you’re saying to yourself that there must be some elected officials who have honor and dignity and do not take part in legalized bribery. Nope. But you can’t blame them for taking the money. In the 435 house elections in 2012, the candidate who spent the most money won 95% of the time. Another scary statistic is that 1% of Americans contribute 68% of all campaign funds. These statistics show that a candidate needs to raise money to win an election. How do they raise money? By pandering to that top 1% that contributes two-thirds of the campaign donations. How do they pander towards the top 1%. By proposing policies that benefit the top 1% to the detriment of the other 99%.

Is there anything we can do to stop this disintegration of our democracy? Yes, but it won’t be easy. There are multiple prominent groups with the goal of getting money out of politics. One prominent group, Wolf PAC, is attempting to pass a constitutional amendment to get money out of politics by going through state legislatures via an amendments convention of the states. In May 2014, Vermont’s state legislature became the first to pass the Wolf PAC resolution. This may seem like a small step, but it is a start. With more support and determination we can get a resolution passed in the 34 states needed to organize a convention. You can help get money out of politics. Just make your voice heard. Call your state legislatures, volunteer in an action group, sign a petition. Any little bit will help. Help get money out of politics and restore our dying democracy.