Political Fundraising Corruption Its Effects on Todays...

In the United States of America, we champion the power of the populace to elect the nation’s leaders. We are taught that each individual vote is important, and that each elected official has the responsibility of representing the electorate, lest the people cast their votes for someone else in future contests. However, in reality, elected officials have become increasingly indebted to their financial contributors while becoming less responsible to the voters themselves. A political campaign has an ever-expanding roster of expenditures, including travel expenses, campaign consulting fees, and the alarmingly high cost of communicating with the voters via print advertisements and the media. The fact that Abraham Lincoln nearly†¦show more content†¦This decision effectively negated the statutory limits enacted by the Federal Election Campaign Acts and the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act. The Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002 was in specific reaction to the quadrupling of soft money campaign contributions between 1993 and 2002 from $105 billion per year to $421 billion per year. With the Citizens United decision, soft money is once again fair game. Indeed, each candidate in the 2012 bid for the Republican nomination for President has managed to garner support from an incredibly powerful â€Å"Super PAC.† Mitt Romney is supported by Restore Our Future, Michelle Bachman by Citizens for a Working America, and even the lesser known Jon M. Huntsman Jr., a former Utah governor, is supported by Our Destiny PAC. Super PAC events can be very lucrative for candidates, as proven when Mitt Romney appeared at a Restore Our Future event in July 2011, where millions of dollars were raised. Of course, in adherence to the laws, he did not make any direct appeals for donations. Without true, meaningful campaign spending reforms, the slippery manner in which campaign financing continues to be conducted will further chip away at the responsibility each candidate and elected official feels toward the voting public. And, with empirical evidence supporting that the candidate with the most money wins the office, there is no impetus toShow MoreRelatedEssay about Celebrity Activists in Contemporary Society3637 Words   |  15 PagesCelebrity Activists in Contemporary Society Works Cited Not Included According to the book Celebrity Politics, approximately 10 percent of Americans get national political news from nightly entertainment shows such as the Tonight Show. For Americans under 30, the number is nearly five times as many (Orman and West 100). Citizens are looking to be entertained rather than simply educated by the nightly news. As David Schultz aptly put it, â€Å" The new media cover politics, but only politics