Politicians taking donations from companies, constituents and a million other sources is nothing new. In fact, it is something that just comes as a second thought in this modern climate. Politicians are given millions in order to fight for certain ideas, bills and laws. However, it is this process that corrupts our political system at its core.

While many people in government who have made the oath to represent their communities may disagree, money and greed affect each and every one of them. According to opensecrets.org, in the last presidential election, outside sources raised over $300 million to go towards the reelection campaign of former President Donald Trump. These donations surely affect how candidates go about developing the agendas they push.

This issue is not only on one side of the aisle either. In the last election it was reported that President Joe Biden’s campaign was the first to ever reach $1 billion from donors alone. Political differences aside, neither of these candidates should have received any of this money. A study done by an assistant professor of managerial economics and decision sciences at the Kellogg School, found that “the likelihood of an individual corporate leader donating to a member of Congress increased by 11% when that legislator received a committee assignment making him or her “policy relevant” to the donor’s company.”

This furthers the point that the idea of political donations is inherently evil and also, not completely the fault of the politicians themselves for accepting them. In fact, the big issue is that political donations have become so commonplace, corporations are aware of this pattern and the ruthless nature of business executives wastes no time in trying to get a leg up.

Historically speaking, it was the candidates’ own money that funded “campaigns,” which still has its own issues. From the beginning of our country it has always been those who have the most money that make decisions for everyone else. The only solution to this problem is monetary campaign caps. While there may be no way to stop the tsunami of political donations that has slithered into every crevice of our system of government today, putting limits on how much candidates are allowed to spend has a chance of working for the benefit of others who have ideas for change.

What happens when money controls the government is that good ideas that may be clear and simple, get drowned out because someone may not have the millions upon millions to stand on.

While capping the amount candidates are allowed to spend will not completely cut this out, it has the ability to stop politicians and business executives running for office from spending so much in order to drown out other ideas.The people of America deserve to hear the ideas of a wide range of people from various backgrounds, not just two individuals who have been born into money or born into politics.

It should speak volumes to the everyday person that over $14 billion was spent in the previous fight over the White House and Congress in 2020. That amount of money is unfathomable and most likely completely discouraging to younger academics, thinkers and politicians whose ideas may be more suited to run a country.

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