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> Why has antitrust died completely in America?

1. The Citizens United ruling allows unbounded money to flow into campaigns.

2. Campaign funding determines election results.

3. Elected officials determine what America does in terms of law and regulation.

4. Billionaires pour tons of money into campaigns.

When you allow dollars to effectively determine elections instead of votes, the end result is oligarchy and the rule of the rich.




Do you know what Citizens United actually was about or allowed for? This video on campaign finance might surprise you:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rhpy1uzOvrY


I used to ascribe to this notion, but 2016 proved me wrong about #2.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/politics/2016-electi...


I think the full story is more complex.

A relatively smaller amount of money will influence state elections, and state-level politicians determine things like district boundaries (i.e. gerrymandering), vote roll purges, polling stations, etc. All of those have a very large impact on elections too.


1. More people voted for Clinton than Trump in 2016. If you look at the notion "More campaign funding = more votes", then this instance does not prove that wrong. It says a lot about Clinton's campaign strategy and America's election system, however, that she still lost the election despite more votes.

2. Trump still raised about a billion dollars. That is an insanely large amount of money.

3. Campaign financing for elections and financing for lobbying for policy are different things. For the latter, it is all but proven that financing is all that matters: https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/perspectives-on-poli...


This proves nothing. Both candidates raised outstanding amounts of money. Without that, neither of them would have had a chance.

Also, it's a completely different ball game talking about which laws get passed vs which candidate gets elected.


If a 46% increase in funding is negligible, then I would think "2. Campaign funding determines election results." would have to be modified.

Is your claim that above a certain dollar threshold money no longer has an impact?




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