Money has always influenced politics

Money has always influenced our politics. It finances campaigns, pays for lobbying, buys access and more. With the 2010 Supreme Court decision in Citizens United, corporations were freed from limitations that affected their financial influence. At one time the Republicans supported unlimited campaign contributions WITH full disclosure. But after Citizens United the Republicans decided that identification of contributors was no longer important.

Post Citizens United we feared a greater influence of secret money, both from corporations and deep pocket individuals like Sheldon Adleson, Foster Friess, the Koch brothers, Frank VanderSloot and others. We saw people like Karl Rove marshalling huge sums of campaign funds in Super PACs. We worried that the big money was going to unduly influence our elections.

Now the dust has somewhat settled from the election. Surprisingly, the big money did little to influence the presidential and senatorial elections. That suggests that our congressional leaders don’t have to worry so much about the influence of big money if they offer what the voters want. It seems to me that our legislators can now step up and defy the big money. They can raise taxes on high incomes, stop the carried interest tax break, tighten regulation on Wall Street, modify the filibuster and repeal tax breaks for big oil.

This election has provided the freedom for our leaders to do what’s better for us than the moneyed interests. Let’s hope they got the message.

BOB WYNHAUSEN

Sandpoint