Opinion

Americans being locked out of political process

Elections — especially at the federal level — have become a moguls’ money game played at the expense of Americans falling far down the income ladder.

The political machine is steered by billionaires such as Charles and David Koch who recently said that collections for conservative causes is nearly $1 billion. That figure will certainly increase as the 2016 elections approach. The financial coffers now are nearly twice what was spent by Republican nominee Mitt Romney in his 2012 effort to defeat President Barack Obama.

A recent Associated Press report said Koch-backed groups are ready to spend “heavily and early” to win even greater influence in Washington. It noted that “Koch-backed groups such as Americans for Prosperity aired tens of millions of dollars in negative ads against incumbent Democratic lawmakers in 2014 and helped Republicans win a majority in the Senate.”

It went on to say that the increasing effectiveness of such factions cause worry, even among folks the average voter might not expect to show concern. Former Oklahoma Republican Gov. Frank Keating, current head of the American Bankers Association, said big money influence “is the new normal.”

Count me among disappointed voters who believe if those put into office by a rich minority are in full control, democracy — defined in my Oxford dictionary as “government by the whole population” ­— will cease to exist in America. The stipulation is elections are “usually through elected representatives.”

If “usually” has been replaced by Keating’s “new normal,” where does that leave mainstream Americans who have an ever-harder time making ends meet? Consider the filibuster last April led by Kentucky Republican Sen. McConnell that doomed a bill to raise the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour. The measure would have raised the pay for at least 16.5 million Americans. Now majority leader, McConnell said “we’re not going to be debating all these gosh-darn proposals.”

Those at the financial top giving to “super Political Action Committees” have plenty of financial flexibility to fund politicians who will see things their way and pass laws that benefit them. McConnell doesn’t want a restoration of campaign finance limits. New Mexico Democrat Sen. Tom Udall and Vermont Independent Sen. Bernie Sanders see the situation in a more enlightened way, stressing that: “buying of elections is not what American democracy is all about.”

Sanders and Udall pointed to the 2012 elections where 32 super Political Action Committee donors gave far more than the millions of ordinary Americans who contributed less than $200 each. They said more than 60 percent of those PAC funds came from just 159 donors who gave over $1 million each.

Democrat Rep. Elizabeth Warren fears those who are “there for millionaires and billionaires” and “not there for people who are working hard playing by the rules and trying to build a future for themselves.”

I am a middle-of-the-road, doubtful Republican who can’t support new Senate Majority Leader McConnell, a longtime advocate of few restrictions on campaign financing. He has praised the Supreme Court’s “Citizens United” decision that opened the door to unlimited political spending by corporations. The Kentucky Republican has been recorded saying Americans “now have, I think, the most free and open system we’ve had in modern times.”

In reality, the hands of a majority of Americans have been tied due to their declining incomes. That fact is locking them out of an increasingly elite political process.

Chris Thompson is an editorial page contributor. He is retired from a 40-year Michigan journalism career. He is active in township government, advisory boards and the Midland Artists Guild.