Brazil Bans Corporate Donations in Elections, Meanwhile U.S. Elections Drown in Corporate Cash
The Free Thought Project
Yet, a democratic political system funded and, as such, controlled by large corporations and their owners, cannot be a true democracy that represents and protects the interests of the people.
Establishment politicians have been compared to, putting it mildly, escorts, who, once elected by the people, do what their major campaign contributors (and potential future employers, clients & co-investors in their businesses after leaving office) tell them to do -- to vote in a way that specifically benefits these strategic political & campaign supporters.
Until elected politicians are just as afraid of losing the support of a regular middle-class voter constituency as they are of losing the trust of big business that funds these politicians -- during their election campaigns, while they're in office (by giving money, jobs and business to politicians' relatives and affiliated persons) and after they leave office (via jobs, paid speeches, business investments & etc.) -- the regular American voter will not have politicians who are defending his rights & interests, but instead, will have political prostitutes who work in the best interests of their political pimps (both Democratic and Republican parties) and clients (big business & major campaign contributors.
America needs to say "NO!" to corporate campaign contributions, regardless if they're funneled through PACs and other legal entities being used to circumvent and manipulate campaign contribution laws.
Individual campaign contributions need to be capped the same way to preserved the "one man man one vote" principle, otherwise wealthy individuals will have a disproportionate effect on elections by funding their candidates the same way as corporations -- though PACs and etc.
Greg Krasovsky
"Taking an approach to the issue of corporate donations in election campaigns almost completely opposite that of the U.S. Supreme Court in Citizens United v FEC, the Brazilian Supreme Court has banned corporate donations in elections.
Last week, the court ruled 8 to 3 that campaign donations from corporations were unconstitutional.
The Brazilian ban on corporate donations comes amid an extensive corruption scandal that has reached all the way to the Brazilian presidency, with citizens calling for President Dilma Rousseff to be impeached.
During the Brazilian elections last year, close to 76% of the total $760 million donated to the campaigns for congress and the presidency, came directly from corporate sources, according to The Guardian.
Taking virtually the opposite position of the Brazilian Supreme Court, the U.S. Supreme Court in 2008, in the case of Citizens United v FEC, ruled to allow virtually unlimited giving to political campaigns by corporations in the United States
While in the U.S. corporations are technically limited in how much they may donate to a candidate or party, the use of 501 (c) 4 organizations, commonly referred to as a “super PAC” allow corporations to give limitlessly."
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