Political spending by corporate America and the ultrawealthy is destroying our democracy. We must end “crony capitalism,” where unlimited political spending by corporations, unions and wealthy individuals causes elected officials to be more responsive to their big donors than to their constituents.
It leads to concentrations of power that undermine the very foundations of our democracy, stifling productive political debate, inhibiting qualified candidates for political office and obstructing pragmatic, lasting solutions on any issue. As a member of American Promise, a cross-partisan nonprofit promoting a constitutional amendment to reverse Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission (2010) and other Supreme Court rulings favoring Big Money campaign donors, I believe in a strong economy, where companies compete based on the value they create in the marketplace.
When businesses compete by buying political influence, they damage the real drivers of American innovation: competitiveness and long-term prosperity. American citizens are waking up to the threat posed by our current pay-to-play campaign finance system (“legalized bribery”): Twenty-one states and more than 900 city and county governments have formally called for a constitutional amendment to get Big Money out of our elections. Citizens of all political persuasions understand that unlimited campaign spending denies us the democratic ideal of a government “of the people, by the people and for the people.”
Steven Thorpe
Wilmington
