Column: Death of Democracy

What can you do with $500 million dollars? According to Forbes, you could build sixteen Eiffel Towers in your backyard. If you don’t like French architecture, you could hire Stephen Spielberg for five years to direct your personal movie. If you are not a movie buff, you could always buy the St. Louis Rams football franchise. If none of these options seem appealing, you could use your fortune to run for President of the United States.

According to USA Today, the winners of both the GOP and Democratic primaries are expected to spend nearly $500 million dollars each in order to capture The White House. The American public is witnessing the birth of the new billion dollar presidential race. Hundreds of millions of dollars that could be donated to worthwhile charities and organization are now funding ambition and advertisements.  Our once glorious egalitarian democracy is being replaced by an election system that values money over solutions, fundraising over ideas.

How have we come to this? The Athenians (founders of democracy) advocated a system of direct democracy that chose executives by lottery. Every voting member in the Athenian parliament had an equal chance of being “elected” as a quasi-representative. Although the United States was founded as a representative democracy, the average man still had the opportunity to become the next U.S. President.  Many of our greatest leaders were born poor and had little initial funding, including Harry Truman and Abraham Lincoln. Could Truman and Lincoln survive today’s money-dominated political contests? Probably not. 

Only with the advent of television and major advertising campaigns has the presidential race become less of a struggle between ideas and more of a fundraising free-for-all. The cost of producing and marketing a candidate and his/her “message” to all 50 states is enormous. Tom Vilsack, a former Iowa governor, declared he was running for president late last year. On February 23rd, after raising just over $1.1 million, Vilsack dropped out of the race citing poor fundraising results. Vilsack stated, “It is money and only money that is the reason we are leaving today." Vilsack touted centrist solutions to some of America’s biggest problems, but his lack of cash prevented the governor from receiving any meaningful media exposure.

Vilsack’s credentials and centrist message should have made him one of the top tier Democrats. Instead, Vilsack barely registered in national presidential polls. If given the chance, the American people might have responded positively to Vilsack’s message. Vilsack could possibly have become the next Harry Truman; however, now we will never know. The money of Clinton, Obama, McCain and the other pseudo celebrity-politicians has essentially muscled out a lesser known, but well-respected candidate. In the coming months, more credible presidential contenders will no doubt follow in Vilsack’s footsteps. It is only a matter of time before well-regarded politicians like Sen. Biden, Sen. Dodd, Rep. Duncan and Gov. Huckabee all quit the presidential contest due to fundraising difficulties.

How do you dismantle an election system that favors the well funded while forcing others to drop out prematurely? Two words: public financing. In order to create a level playing field for all of the candidates, monetary donations should be banned. In addition, public funds should be allocated to those who are running. Every candidate will have a limited amount of money to spend during the election season. It will then be possible for the presidential election to be based not on cash and hype, but on the exchange of ideas. An election system supported by public financing would allow Tom Vilsack to stay and potentially thrive in the presidential contest. This type of election would give the voters a real choice and re-energize American democracy.

Democratic politics was not designed to cater to only the elites. Money should not determine whether one could survive the political process. At its core, democracy is should be based on the exchange of ideas and solutions. As more money seeps into the democratic process, the American people are left with less thoughtful debate. As more good candidates leave the race, the American people are left with no real choice. Only through public financing can our broken election system be fixed in time to prevent the death of our democracy.