Citizens United, billions of campaign dollars and commercials later, and the United States is as polarized as ever.
Progressives, liberals, media and political elites, all screamed when Citizens United overturned the McCain-Feinfold Campaign Finance Reform law.
Yet after two years, and billions of dollars spent by Democrats, Republicans, and independent Pacs and SuperPacs around the country, the polling showed one of the most divisive and divided electorates in modern history.
Whereas twenty or even thirty years ago, 80% of votes were a toss-up, including the larger states of California and New York, now these spectator states are all but assured before the middle of the election year, followed by a dwindling number of swing states which get bombarded with mailers, flyers, televions and internet ads, radio spots, and candidate rallies.
Yet over the past three weeks, the polling danced around 47 and 49 percent in many contests.These results should awaken a spirit of skepticism in the low-information as well as the well-informed voters. Although the election seems like years ago, the Wisconsin Gubernatorial recall election seemed capped to be a close race, when after the final pollig both closed and the last ballot was counted, Walker emerged ahead by eleven points, a better finish than when he had first won the governor's seat.
Congressman Henry Waxman, among other more liberal and "progressive" candidates, is calling for public financing of political campaigns, as if spreading around taxpayer dollars will solve all the problems. Yet following the money drain of 2010, in which Republican party operatives dropped $187 billion into the Golden State, only to yield hay, straw, stubble, and not one Republican win for statewide or national office, it would appear that money in politics does not hold the terroritorial or even torturous influence over voters as pundits had fearfully predicted.
In one key race, the California 66th Assembly district, the Democratic candidate (not challenger nor incumbent, since the district was created entirely out of different previous constituencies by the California Redistricting Commission) Al Muratsuchi, Torrance School Board member and state prosector, poured hundreds of thousands of dollars into the fiscally conservative, socially moderate district. The greatest alarm, motivating voters and volunteers by the volume, to step in and campaign for Huey and Muratsuchi centered on the Democratic Party's hope to gain tw more seats, thus solidifying a two-thirds majority in both houses of the state legislature, thus enabling them to pass any tax, regulation, or even repeal the revered Prop 13.
Yet after months of frequent mailers, many of them maligning Republican Craig Huey a mysoginst and a crooked Tea Party extremist, the nasty vitriol turned off voters. The growing frustration of flyers flying in the face of South Bay voters turned them out to vote for Huey in a district which had a three point Democratic advantage. Without large sums of money, with a solid message of lower taxes and protect Prop 13, small business owner carried the district.
It would seem that money has at best a hit and miss influence on politics. If the message is good, the money will make it more so. If the message, the candidate, or the circumstances war against the better interests of intuition of the voter, then the money only makes a bad message worse.
Money is having a diminished effect in our politics. Word of mouth, private bloggers, independent campaigns, boutique commentators, and the roaring expanse of Internet commentary, complete with live mikes and sudden suprises, have put all candidates on the alert, arming the citizen with more information, more input, more influence, with or without money.
The fear-mongering of academic elites is reduced to naught. The influence of money in politics has diminished not because of more stringent laws regulating the investment and intervention of campaign dollars, but rather because the spigot of easy money has drenched the electorate, only to water down its impact altogether.
Citizens United reveald how divided our national polity has become, that money will no longer move the masses, but access, rapidity, and a cunning need to know influences voters, elections, and the future of our country. Money no longer drives our politics, for point of fact it never did. After three years of electronic persuasion, let us hope that the "public campaign" caucus will have spent its last venting on this issue.
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