Who’s Buying Votes?
Lobbying is a part of political life. The influence and money of special interest groups exerts considerable pressure on politicians to vote in harmony with their biggest campaign contributors… so, who’s buying the votes?
And who is being bought?
The Center for Responsive Politics has examined the top 100 contributors over the past 20 years and presents their interesting data here… but you can get a very quick impression of what’s going on by just looking at the top 20:
Well over half of the MOST ACTIVE special interest groups are unions… and the rest are large corporations. Here’s the notable part:
While companies tend to “hedge their bets”… contributing more-or-less equally to both Democrats and Republicans… unions are totally committed to Democrats. Not a surprise, I grant you, but think about it. As a result of this lopsided flow of money, are Democrats more likely to represent the wishes of “the people” or the wishes of the unions?
There’s an old saying that, when you want to find the truth, all you have to do is “follow the money”.
Not only are unions in bed with the Democrats, it’s worth remembering that they are, on the whole, bigger contributors than “big business”.
