Money is the Most American (and honest) Way to Measure this Election
Today is Election Day. Tonight, votes will be counted one by one to decide who wins and who loses. But sixteen years after Citizens United, there’s another American way to count: dollars.
Elon Musk has put roughly $446 million into this year’s midterms, according to FEC filings. No individual donor in U.S. history has given more. Nearly $190 million went to one Senate race in Texas.
I'll shrink the numbers to illustrate the problem clearly. Musk is worth about $840 billion, so he’s spent about 0.05% of it. If you’re worth $1 million, that’s $530. Two trips to the grocery store (if you're lucky). For you, groceries. For him, a say in who runs the country.
That’s what too much power looks like. One man can fund candidates and sway elections without batting an eye.
Citizens United and the super PAC rulings that followed said unlimited political spending is protected speech. But when one person’s voice is the loudest in the room and costs him nothing, while almost everyone else’s carries a real trade-off, that isn’t an equal playing field. Contribution limits, real-time disclosure, and public financing are necessary. It’s time to get corporations and billionaires out of the driver’s seat, where they decide which stories matter and which candidates gain traction, and return that power to the people.
Tonight we count the votes. Tomorrow, we should rethink the dollars.