Keep Money in Politics

Despite its critics, money in politics is a good thing. Campaign ads, especially negative ones, help voters make better-informed decisions.

It’s become a common rallying cry on the Right and the Left: “Let’s get money out of politics.” The phrase has been used as shorthand for banning lobbying, limiting corporate campaign contributions, and encouraging antipathy towards rich donors and super-PACs.

In this vein, Donald Trump famously claimed that he was “self-funding” his campaign for president. And despite being a millionaire himself, Bernie Sanders gained many followers in the last presidential election primarily by criticizing “millionaires and billionaires.” Throughout his ill-fated presidential run, the Vermont senator accused the rich of exercising too much influence in politics and stifling the voices of the common people.

Almost universally, critics of money in politics point to Citizens United v. FEC, a 2010 decision where the Supreme Court ruled that political spending was a form of constitutionally protected speech. Both Sanders and Hillary Clinton would have required a pledge to overturn Citizens United as a litmus test for their Supreme Court nominees. According to certain polls, the American people seem to be on their side.