
Jimmy Carter: The U.S. Is an “Oligarchy with Unlimited Political Bribery” - georgecmu
https://theintercept.com/2015/07/30/jimmy-carter-u-s-oligarchy-unlimited-political-bribery/
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rayiner
Gonna throw this out here: [http://i1.wp.com/metrocosm.com/wp-
content/uploads/2016/11/hi...](http://i1.wp.com/metrocosm.com/wp-
content/uploads/2016/11/historical-presidential-campaign-spending.png).

 _Citizens United_ doesn't seem to be any sort of inflection point. The big
jump was during the Bush/Kerry election, ironically the first Presidential
cycle during which the 2002 campaign finance law ultimately struck down by
_Citizens United_ was in place. Spending actually went down during the
Clinton/Trump contest, after the law was struck down, and Trump won despite
Clinton spending almost twice as much.

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erikpukinskis
I'm more curious about congressional runs than the presidential ones. The
presidential run is too big and quirky to ever be truly controlled by money
alone. But with hundreds of congressional campaigns up for grabs, that seems
like a tractable problem to solve with cash.

Also, at this point most of the money can be spent outside the campaigns
entirely. Robert Mercer can just run his simulations and use bots and paid
posters to move public opinion around. He doesn't need to work directly with
the campaign at all.

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dogma1138
Well in 2008 Obama came out of nowhere and outspent Clinton even in the
primaries. So while it won't win you an election it sure can put you on the
map. Trump is an odd case I'm not sure if the actual spending is truely
accounted for, but he just seemed to get as much free press as you can. Trump
is also the first candidate that was really hooked into every social media
outlet, and did so correctly so in effect they did much more with their money
than the Dems.

In presidential elections the Democrats tend to tie or outspend the
republicans, for congressional and especially local elections they seem to
fall behind.

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erikpukinskis
My sense is that Obama/Axelrod won because of next gen volunteer coordination
software. And Trump/Mercer won because of next gen media-sentiment modeling
software. Both strategies played to the candidate's strengths.

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mcappleton
Crony capitalism stinks, but the first amendment protects freedom of the
press. You are crossing into very dangerous territory when you limit the right
to express one's political opinion, even if it is corrupt.

Perhaps a better idea would be to have the voters decide on how much a senator
should get paid after his term is completed. That might help keep them more
true to their campaign promises.

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JCzynski
And the bribes do very little to affect who wins or benefit the bribers when
they do. Yawn.

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ionised
What are you basing that on?

