"fat cats" control the senate



Okay, so now rather than go decade by decade I'm going to connect the past to the present.  So, one of the biggest scandals in american society is politicians being influenced by money.  It was a problem in the 20th century and it is a problem now.  People who run for office take millions of dollars in campaign dnations from big multinational coroporations in excahnge for lobying in the intrest of those companies.  In a past prospective, one of the most infamous cases of this was tanmney hall, which, as seen in the cartoon on the side, controlled govenrment, rigged elections, and bribed officials, all in the intrest of their individual corporations.  In a modern perspective, a New York Times article talks about corruption in the present govenrment, and the desicion made by the supreme court about unlimited spending on campaign donations.  "It is not merely an academic question. The Supreme Court has consistently said that only fighting corruption or the appearance of corruption justifies laws that restrict political spending. Other rationales — like leveling the playing field between the haves and have-nots — are not enough.

Defenders of the rules say their case for tighter restrictions on campaign money is obvious to anyone who knows Washington. Private influence-seekers shower big contributions on politicians because they want to gain access and shape policy; they would not spend the money if they got nothing in return."  So while the supreme court ays that they can only stop donations if they see evidence of corruption, others would argue that it is not so superficial, and that people who truly know the workings of washington D.C. knows that money dropped into the pockets of politicians is how government keeps its influence, like B.P. oil having such a strong lobby community in the House of Representatives.