Megadonors have outsized influence

Elon Musk has pledged to contribute $45 million a month to Donald Trump’s presidential campaign as the former president shifts from years ridiculing electric vehicles to now saying, “I’ve driven them and they are incredible.” Musk’s pledge means he can buy more political speech than tens of millions of ordinary people combined.

Democrats also have multimillion-dollar donors. Whether Republican or Democratic, these huge donors often do not have the same outlook as ordinary members of their parties on labor unions, job creation, world trade, taxation, minimum wages, retirement and the affordability of health care, education and housing.

History shows that working people made the most gains in wages and working conditions when they had strong unions. Then, productivity gains were shared with workers and the middle class was expanding. President Biden, Vice-President Harris and most Democrats support unions. Elon Musk, Donald Trump and most Republicans oppose unions.

As in Musk’s case, other huge donors also gain powerful influence on politicians, helping them get richer while so many ordinary people struggle. All too often in our system logic, merit and the public interest lose out to big dollars.

The super-wealthy already had a big advantage in contributions before unlimited contributions were permitted by the Supreme Court’s 5-to-4, precedent-overturning, 2010 Citizens United decision with the five justices in the majority appointed by Republican presidents.

If we want our system to work for everyone and not have a built-in advantage for big donors, we must get big money out of politics and have public funding of election campaigns which is working well at state, county and city levels.

Richard Barsanti

Western Springs