Money in Politics

Sadly, the ads that the billionaires are buying work. Otherwise they wouldn't invest. And be clear, that's what this is. An investment, and billionaires know it's a wise investment. So imagine the return they expect on their massive investment in buying a president.

Because we need a daily reminder of the obscene amounts of money that are sloshing into our politics, like so much Union Carbide goop into all the kno...

As I type, thousands of working groups are spread throughout the country organizing toward the same goal: ending the corrupt culture that has consumed our government by getting money out of politics. It's time to Occupy Democracy.

WASHINGTON -- It may be years before unmanned aircraft are common in the sky, but lobbyists for the industry that develops and manufactures the drones...

We have ventured so far from the vision of the founding fathers that if they were still alive, I'm certain those founders would start another revolution. I blame Citizens United.

WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama's response to JPMorgan Chase's spectacular trading failure underscores a persistent tension in his presidency -- ...

Federalist conservatives love shifting power from the federal government to states because they believe that the closer government is to its citizens, the more responsive it is to those citizens. They could not be more wrong.

Unlike most advocates for economic justice or democracy who have separated the issues, the Occupiers got this right. We can't have an economy that works for the 99 percent until we put our democracy in the hands of the 99 percent.

WASHINGTON -- Hoping to put a harsh spotlight on the coercive effect super PACs are having on the political process, a prominent progressive activist ...

WASHINGTON -- A judge has turned aside a request to temporarily lift a long-standing ban on contributions by federal contractors to political campaign...

Adam Smith would be appalled by the behavior of those who justify their selfish actions by citing his name and the economic rules that he supposedly espoused.

Former Sen. Bob Kerrey's (D-Neb.) campaign announced Friday that he raised more than $900,000 since entering the race on Feb. 29. to fill the seat of ...

"Good guys" get elected when we stop electing the bad ones; we don't have to kowtow to large campaign budgets, flashy commercials and robocalls.

Early union struggles need to be remembered and appropriately re-enacted if we are to take the country back from the corporate interests that again control it, their political and judicial allies, and the complicit mainstream media.

The 2012 campaign for the Republican nomination for president has provided a clear indication of the shape of post-Citizens United politics in America.

Simply passing a bill designed by the Chamber of Commerce and the banks is a cheap move to appease donors and those whose economic theories have been proven wrong at every turn over the past several decades. But that is, unfortunately, what we have come to expect.

Connecticut has a clear path forward with the blessing of the Supreme Court. They can adopt a requirement that shareholders get a say on politics. With any hope, Connecticut can be the mouse that roars, exhibiting national leadership in this post-Citizens United America.

Perhaps we need more Greg Smith-type truth-telling from those who have lived in the belly of the beast on Wall Street and in Washington. That'd be a good start. But while one person leaving with a kiss-and-tell story salves his or her conscience, it doesn't alter structural imbalances.

The equivalent of 0.000351% of the population of the United States (or just 35 of every 10 million Americans) has given 96% of the money determining who stays and who goes in the Republican primary.

In the midst of a lively political campaign, with big spending a big issue, even the media can get the Constitution wrong. There is a link, but it is only indirect, between the Court's 2010 decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission and the rise of super PACs.

For those who think that our election system is fundamentally on the wrong track, the only option is to amend the Constitution to allow Congress and the States to do what is necessary to restore some level of sanity to campaign finance rules.

If the 2012 election involves way too much money and way too little substance, we have no one but ourselves to blame.

Today, voters in ten states will voice their preferences in the GOP's presidential nomination battle. But this year, the so-called Super Tuesday primary is shaping up to be just another act in the new blockbuster, Attack of the Super PACs.

The factors that would typically lead to a campaign's demise -- the absence of popular support, too few donors -- have become irrelevant in an era where a few billionaires can resurrect campaigns from the dead through Super PACs.