Re: How much money spent campaigning???
You get a lot of donations, it isn't like there's one guy giving $144 million to a campaign. Some of it is obviously self interest (making their companies more successful, lowering their taxes) but some of it is just people who crave power and may not get any personal gain out of it. Hopefully there are a few who have truly altruistic motivations, who knows?
Unfortunately without a constitutional amendment, we won't be able to get rid of the money in US politics, since the Supreme Court has ruled political donations are a form of speech and thus protected under the First Amendment. A new amendment would require a 2/3 majority in both the house and senate, and approval by 38 of the 50 states. Since the politicians that won are generally going to be able to raise more money than any challengers, they do not have much incentive to support such an amendment.
Given how divided the US is politically, getting both parties to agree on anything is unlikely, especially when one party controls everything as is the current situation in the US when Trump takes office. Why would they risk rocking the boat by making such a major change, unless they were sure it would hurt the democrats more than it hurt themselves? Since there's no way of knowing that, better to play it safe and stick with the status quo.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
