Amazon CEO may be world’s richest; but your vote is gold

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Editorials

September 6, 2018 - 11:17 AM

Amazon Founder and CEO Jeff Bezos Photo by (Andrej Sokolow/DPA/Abaca Press/TNS)

News that Amazon’s CEO Jeff Bezos donated $10 million to a super PAC, leaves us cold.
First, it doesn’t seem right anyone should have that much disposable income.
Second, those with deep pockets have politicians at their beck and call, making the rest of us small-time donors feel like chumps.
What good is $25 compared to millions? We ask.
Turns out, more than you think.
In recent reporting by the Federal Election Commission, small-dollar giving is at an all-time high, signaling greater voter interest.
Democrats, especially, are emptying their piggy banks to send in sums in the $25 to $50 range. In Congressional races, small donations comprise almost 14 percent of the overall funding pie for Democrats, as opposed to just under 7 percent for Republicans. In the race for U.S. Senate, small donations comprise 28 percent of all raised by Democrats, compared to 8.3 percent for Republicans.
In Kansas, of course, Republicans outdo Democrats by an almost 2-to-1 margin, with the GOP raising 63 percent compared to Democrats’ 34 percent of the more than $17 million in this campaign cycle, according to OpenSecrets.Org.

IF YOU FEEL  left out, don’t.
Less than 1 percent, in fact, of American adults regularly give to a political campaign, typically in donations of $200 or less.
On the flip side of the giving spectrum, an even smaller demographic, the so-called one percent of the one percent, are giving generously. In the 2014 general election, this elite stratum of 31,976 donors gave $1.18 billion, about 29 percent of all election contributions.
Such generous, and secretive, giving became possible in 2010 with the U.S. Supreme Court’s “Citizens United’ case that ruled “corporations are people.” The decision struck down decades of fundraising limits, permitting unfettered giving by private donors through Super Pacs, giving undue influence to wealthy individuals and big business. Today, thousands of such PACs are set up to direct hundred of millions of dollars to political campaigns. During the 2016 election, 20 such donations amounted to more than $500 million, according to Open Secrets.
More than ever, money talks.
But so do votes. And the vote of a pauper carries just as much weight as a billionaire’s.
So even if you don’t give a dime to someone’s campaign, your vote is worth gold. But only if you spend it.
— Susan Lynn

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