Common Sense
In late 1775, young author and printer Thomas Paine wrote Common Sense. It provided a view to the divided
American colonists of why a revolution was necessary, and conjured up a forthcoming democratic version of the
United States. The popularity of the writing was massive; most everybody had read or heard about it. Today, I write
about a problem in our country that must be addressed. I use Paine’s title on my story simply because of what my
story is based on: common sense.
We the people of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility,
provide for the common defence, promote the General Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our
Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America. [1]
Notice how it says we the people. But is our country really ruled by we, the people? In spite of our country being the
stereotype for democracy, our government has plunged into a cliquey system where a handful of wealthy elites have
essentially bought the country from right under our noses.
So here’s the system: When politicians throw their hats into the ring and decide to run for public office, whether it be
President of the United States or a lowly, state level representative, politicians need money. During an interview,
Texas senator Ted Cruz professed: “Running for president is real simple- you just have to surgically disconnect your
shame sensor, because you spend every waking moment asking people for money… That is politics in a nutshell.”[2]
Politicians spend most, if not all of their time begging for campaign donations.
In the 2012 presidential race, Barack Obama spent in excess of $632,000,000, and his counterpart Mitt Romney
spent just below 390,000,000.[3] This is also why billionaire Donald Trump made a big splash shortly after announcing his
candidacy in June 2015. Having enough capital is imperative to being a politician, because to earn votes, you must run television
advertisements, fly around the country holding rallies, and also purchase offices for staff members so they can ask for more
money.
It may all seem good and well, but when you really contemplate what this does, you can see how it hurts our
government. Although politicians do try to rake in small donations from the middle class, the big checks come from
wealthy corporation owners and political action committees (or PACs), who, when giving money, have pretty much
enslaved the politicians. Politicians usually end up fiddling with or completely changing their policies in order to
please the donors with the hope of receiving future donations. Instead of being the voice of the people, they are the
sommelier to the rich’s thirst for power. In short, this system does not represent the people.
If you follow the money, the largest spenders win most every time. In the 2014 midterms, 94% of the biggest House
spenders won, and 84% of the biggest Senate spenders won.[4] This is why congress can’t pass even the most basic gun
legislation, and why the oil industry always seems to get their way. This also explains why our federal government is at a record
low rate of passing bills, because they spend all of their time getting money, and none of their time legislating. It’s intuitively
logical to see that this is legalized bribery. Our country isn’t ruled by the people, it’s ruled by the wealthy.
So how did this happen? In 2010, a case called Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission was brought in front
of the Supreme Court. In essence, it was an extension on the Buckley v. Valeo case, which ruled that money is free
speech. The Citizens United ruling was a 5-4 decision approving the bill, acknowledging corporations as people.
Since corporations are people, and money is free speech, PACs and businesses were given the green light to spend
unlimited money on advertisements. They could convince people to vote for a candidate of their choice, without
regulation. Although this did not affect the limit of giving directly to a candidate, those limits of donating are quickly
unraveling.[5] The chairman of the Federal Election Commission, Ann Ravel, has admitted her agency is “highly dysfunctional”
and the chances of them using their regulatory power is “slim”.[6]
Even some people at the very top are tired of it. Dale Schultz, a former senator from Wisconsin, held a seat in the US
senate for over 20 years. And prior to a primary to run for re-election, he just dropped out. He had enough of the
money in politics. What sent him over the edge was that the Koch brothers thought he wasn’t conservative enough,
and were pushing for a competing candidate, fellow republican Howard Marklein. Instead of trying to fend off the
biggest lobbyists in the country, he gave up. Disclosing his retirement, he lamented: “The business of politics has
changed, and I firmly believe that we are beginning in this country to look like a Russian style oligarchy where a
couple dozen billionaires have basically bought the government.”[7]
There is also Carl Levin, a former democratic senator form Michigan. Levin had been in Washington for 36 years, and
also decided not to run for re-election. Unlike Schultz, there were no major competitors for him. In 2008, he was
awarded 63% of the vote. Running again would be a landslide victory. He only retired because he was tired of raising
money. Money in politics is a non-partisan issue. The people who create a cacophony defending the current regime
being in the rich’s pocket are either lying, or blinded to what this has done to our government.
The plan to retaliate and save our government is simple. In order to limit the amount of legalized bribes, the rulings of
Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission and Buckley v. Valeo must be overturned. Campaign donations from
an individual should be limited to $1,000 and money spent by PACs should limited to $5,000. This will curtail
corporate influence on politicians, and it should be plenty to fund a campaign. For example, Bernie Sanders, who
does not have a PAC behind him, has surprisingly been neck and neck with Hillary Clinton on finances throughout the
2016 primaries. Candidates can also collect money by the means of merchandising and other events.
If you want to help restore our democracy, I encourage you to volunteer or donate to Wolf-PAC, a PAC who leads the
endeavor of reforming our system of campaign financing. The strategy of Wolf-PAC is to overturn multiple Supreme
Court cases, including Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission and Buckley v. Valeo, and then place limits on
campaign donations. Wolf-PAC already knows Washington is too corrupt to create a constitutional amendment such
as this, but as outlined in Article V of the Constitution, it is possible for a convention of the states, where, with the
approval of 34 states, a convention can be called to create an amendment without the approval of congress. They
have already prevailed in a few states, but Wolf-PAC will need the help of more Americans to save our union.[8]
They say money can’t buy you happiness, but what it can definitely do is buy you an office on Capitol Hill. Some
people are discarded as mad when they think America could collapse in the near future. With past empires like that of
Britain, Rome, and Greece previously descending into chaos, the same thing could happen to us. We still have time
to save our country, but time is evaporating rapidly. We’ll have to remove the political stagnation that has plagued our
country for years, but it is the only way to save our government. It’s just common sense.
[1] Preamble to the United States Constitution.
[2] Cruz made this remark on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert on September 21st, 2015.
[3] Figures gathered from opensecrets.org. See page covering 2012 presidential race for exact numbers.
[4] Statistics found by post-analysis done by the Center for Responsive Politics.
[5] Informed by article written by John Dunbar on publicintegrity.org about Citizens United and its influence on today’s
politics.
[6] Ms. Ravel made this comment in an interview with The Daily Show’s Jordan Klepper on November 12, 2015.
[7] Schultz made this statement when announcing his decision to drop out.
[8] Wolf-PAC is a political action committee founded in 2011 by Cenk Uygur, aiming to “end corporate personhood
and publicly finance all elections in our country”.