The vast majority of these donations comes from a vanishingly small percentage of the American public — Just .13% of the population contributed $200 or more to candidates in the last election cycle.
This leaves our elected leaders disproportionately sensitive to the interests of a tiny handful of elites, at the expense of everyone else. A systematic review of 1,779 recent policy outcomes by researchers and Princeton and Northwestern Universities found that:
When the preferences of economic elites and the stands of organized interest groups are controlled for, the preferences of the average American appear to have only a minuscule, near-zero, statistically non-significant impact upon public policy....
Out of over 235 million adults over 18 qualified to vote without voter ID, only 0.13% provides campaign donations of $200 or more. That means the elections in the USA are lost to bought and paid for candidates. To begin every office in the government needs to have term limits.
But, primarily the burden on the citizens unable to donate only less than $200 or less is tremendous. The donations of $199 is a sacrifice they are making to save their country from exploitation of the elite class. It places an incredible burden on the majority of Americans to participate and retain control of their government.
The other aspect of this that no one addresses is the enormous insult to political ethics this reality presents. While there are class struggles to have favorable candidates compete with policies that benefit the Middle Class and Working Poor, what sincerely is a problem is the ethics of the situation. If a candidate is willing to pander to big money donors and special interests what does that say as a candidate for office and their loyalty to the voters.
I find the lack of ethics in accepting large elite donations more than a reason to bring up these candidates as unfit for office.
