Sherry Chandler » Here’s an obscenity
Here’s an obscenity
JOHN McCAIN and Barack Obama are not the only winners to emerge from the long presidential primary season.
The two presumptive nominees, along with the many candidates who bowed out along the way, spent more than $900 million through the end of May, about $470 million more than was spent on primaries in 2000, when both major parties last had competitive primary battles. Nearly half of the current spending has been paid to just a few dozen companies.
…
Some experts say they think that as campaign spending rises, the candidates benefit much less than the companies. “The total amount of money doesn’t matter, especially since you start to see diminishing returns,” said Ray C. Fair, an economist at Yale who studies economic influences on presidential elections. “What matters is the difference in spending between the two parties.”
Elections are bought in this country. So, while it may be one (wo)man, one vote at the polls, it is not on human one dollar. That’s only on your IRS return.
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2 Comments
1. koshembos replies at 6th July 2008, 4:00 pm :
Wstern democracies will have to rectify the disproportional political power of the rich if they want to stay democracies. The US is just in worse shape than all other Western democracies due to lack of campaign funding and overabundance of rich people.
2. sherry replies at 6th July 2008, 4:07 pm :
Oh Koshembos, if we have an overabundance of rich people, we also have an overabundance of poor people. Which is your point, I think. How to restore balance is beyond me when it is money and not votes that elects candidates.
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