Election day is looming and the political ads are virtually inescapable. Political advertising used to cover our yards and mailboxes but now they’re plastered across our television sets and smart phones. The rapid developments of new technologies have led political advertisements to infiltrate every imaginable media platform. These political advertisements aren’t cheap, which is why this election is on the road to becoming the most expensive election yet. The New York Times has been keeping track of this “money race” and has visualized the data into an easy-to-understand graph.
So where do candidates get all this money? These infamous Super PACs are to thank for such large contributions. Who are these Super PAC contributors? According to politicians, that’s privileged information.
Super PACs can contribute as much money to a candidate as they want and remain anonymous. Reasons why this is bad are as plentiful as the political ads flooding our inboxes. Anonymous donors hiding behind their large corporate paychecks fund candidates who will look out for the best interest of their donors. Naturally, said candidate will vote for legislation favoring the person backing them so that they don’t lose their campaign funding. It’s an endless cycle intended to make sure that upper class Americans continue to control government.
Photo courtesy of Digiprove
It’s clear that we need election reform so let’s make these Super PACs pay for it! If we taxed these anonymous donors, we would be making them pay for the process that they are so keen on controlling. It’s clear that it’s going to take time to implement super pac reform but taxing the PACs could be a small step towards a larger, much needed solution.
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