there aren't a lot of functioning democracies around the world that work this way where you can basically have Millionaires and billionaires bankrolling whoever they want however they want in some cases undisclosed and what it means is ordinary Americans are shut out of the process the 2020 election year was the most expensive election in U.S history costing an estimated 14.4 billion dollars the richest .001 to the top 25 000 richest people accounted for 40 percent of all campaign contributions 40 it absolutely blew the previous record for most spending out of the water the previous record-breaking year 2016. at 6.4 billion dollars when control of the Senate was up for grabs in 2021 the Georgia runoff election between David Perdue and John ossif cost over 470 million dollars becoming the most expensive congressional election in history and this election spending has no sign of slowing down in 2021 house demo crowds introduced the for the people act which would overhaul campaign Finance laws and limit the influence of private donor money on our elections after passing in the house it died in the Senate with no sign of resuscitation sense and of course why would they resuscitate a law that would limit their access to cash where money Reigns Supreme in a democratic system it's against elected officials best interest to remove money from the equation I wanted to know more about how our politicians are bought out and why there are so few safeguards against the influence money has on elected officials who are supposed to be representing all of their constituents not the few Millionaires and billionaires who are bankrolling them and who often aren't even represented by the people they're bankrolling what I learned is that it doesn't have to be this way and it hasn't always been this way recent legal changes have allowed private undisclosed and corporate money to funnel into our elections eroding our democracy along with it this is how money is ruining democracy roll that intro [Music] thank you to my partner on today's video greatness greatness is an app that can help you build healthy habits and routines to improve your physical mental and emotional health I've been really aware of my Hormone Health over the last year and stress is such a vital thing to pay attention to and reduce as much as possible to keep your cortisol levels in check reducing my cortisol levels has been key to maintaining a healthy balance in my life greatness can help you manage stress boost your energy levels and so much more the greatness app offers a wide range of custom habit programs based on your goals and lifestyle for mindfulness and meditation to Fitness and Nutrition their premium content includes Daily Audio coaching and expert courses I really like how careful the app is not to overwhelm you with too many habits or busy work instead just focusing on one small habit at a time that will really slowly build up to help you achieve your goals this is because the app was created by world-renowned behavioral scientists and it's focused on helping you build habits that will actually stick think about the things that you wished that you did every day or the little things that could help you reach your biggest goals the greatness app can help you achieve that and you don't have to figure it out on your own and special for my viewers you can use the link in the description to get 72 percent off the 12-month plan for the greatness app 72 off and for the first 100 people to use my code legion10 you'll get an extra 10 off but only for the first 100 people who sign up using the code legia10 so don't drag your feet on this one come join me on the greatness app so how did we get here the answer is a little case called citizens united ever heard of it it's a recent U.S Supreme Court case that's Changed History it is the principal reason behind all of the money in Washington and ultimately it allowed Trump to grow into the multi-headed Beast that he is today but I'm getting ahead of myself while the current climate of campaign finance and money in Washington is worse than it's ever been politicians they're a Wily bunch and when you put a group of powerful and power hungry politicians together well you're bound to have a few bad actors because of this money and bribery have always had a home in the Cozy Hall of Congress and the White House during the Gilded Age when business was booming and the flow of money seemed like it would never end the hotly contested election of 1896 brought money and bribery and politics to the main stage with both presidential candidates William McKinley and William Jennings Bryan accused of bribery and unethical Behavior after that campaign Finance reform became a Hot Topic and in 1907 Congress passed the Tillman act explicitly prohibiting corporations and National Banks from contributing money to Federal campaigns three years later in 1910 Congress passed the publicity act also known as the federal Corrupt Practices Act this was the first law to require public disclosure of all money spent in elections by political parties it required candidates to also disclose their own spending and set limits on the amount that a campaign could spend enter however the Roaring Twenties a time for great economic prosperity in the U.S combined with prohibition this meant that gangs and Corruption were running rampant not just in Washington but across the country The Teapot Dome scandal became the most Sensational scandal in the history of American politics at the time only to be outdone 50 years later by the Watergate scandal the administration of President Harding facilitated by Secretary of the Interior Albert bacon fall had leased Navy petroleum reserves at Teapot Dome Wyoming to private oil companies the problem was the rates that these private companies were paying were low and there had been no competitive bidding process Albert bacon fall was eventually convicted of accepting bribes from the oil companies in exchange for the favorable contract making him the first presidential cabinet member to go to prison in the wake of the Scandal Congress passed numerous laws aimed at rooting out bribery and Corruption caused by politicians who just couldn't say no to a little side cache in 1925 they amended the federal Corrupt Practices Act requiring quarterly Financial disclosures from all entities that made political contributions to any elected official they also passed laws that in increased congressional oversight power including giving Congress subpoena power over tax records of any U.S citizen as labor unions reached their peak in the 1940s and 50s the Tillman acts you know the one that was passed to Bar corporations and National Banks from contributing money to Federal campaigns yeah that was amended to include unions as well now barred from contributing directly to parties and campaigns unions began creating voluntary associations that raised funds from Individual donors specifically for candidates and thus the first political action committees or Pacs were born but traditional Pacs have a number of regulations these committees can be formed by anyone but most often are formed by unified business interests labor unions and single issue or ideological groups which makes sense it's a way to pull money from related individuals and use that money to help fund campaigns for politicians who support their interests however Pacs can't take money from corporations or unions just from individuals and they can only take up to five thousand dollars per year from individuals there are limits on the amount they can donate to each election up to ten thousand dollars for candidates in primary and general elections and they can give fifteen thousand dollars annually to party committees but packs are permitted unlimited independent expenditures these include Communications like flyers and ads on TV and radio that expressly advocate for a candidate's election or defeat and must disclose who's paying for the ad that's why you regularly see ads that say paid for by an entity that isn't the campaign of the candidate themselves that's a pack whose interests will be served by the election of the politician they're supporting limits on how much candidates and others could spend on broadcast and other types of advertising were imposed in 1971 with the passage of the federal election campaign act or fika however fika allowed corporations and unions to establish and operate Pacs so like you can create one but you can't donate to one but you can fund the creation of one yeah and fika also didn't really have any teeth like it didn't establish a monitoring Agency for the new law it assigned a random group of officials including the secretary of the Senate the clerk of the house and the Comptroller General to oversee the implementation of the rules and then the doj was tasked just generally with going after violators this on top of all the other that all these people also had to do for their jobs so when after the 1972 election more than 7 000 cases of violations of this campaign Finance law were reported very few ended up being litigated because people just didn't have the time or Focus due to the disorganization of the law itself so then when the Watergate scandal broke which included allegations of campaign Finance abuses despite all the reported cases of campaign Finance allegations in the 1972 election Congress was still like whoa and then passed some more reforms including creating the Federal Election Commission or FEC a governing body with six voting members tasked with monitoring the campaign Finance disclosure reports from candidates and actually enforcing campaign Finance laws they also rewrote FICA to create contribution and spending limits for all federal campaigns however this obviously did not suit the interests of businesses and the politicians who were paid off by those businesses so they quickly filed suit claiming that FICO was unconstitutional two years later in 1976 the Supreme Court wrote the Buckley Vallejo decision which found that restrictions on individual contributions to political campaigns and candidates did not violate the First Amendment because it was a compelling governmental interest to enhance the Integrity of our system of representative democracy by guarding against unethical practices but the court found that setting limits on independent expenditures by campaigns and limitations on expenditures by candidates from their own personal or family resources did violate the First Amendment the court determined that these practices really didn't create a potential for corruption in the same way that individual contributions to candidates do so there was no governmental interest address that outweighed their right to free speech that's right a rich person's ability to fund their own campaign definitely won't negatively impact access to democratic processes or to holding office can't think of a single reason why that could be a problem because of these car routes that left FICA weaker and created loopholes for more money to flow in unlimited donations from corporations and unions began to flow in through those loopholes in the form of soft money okay so let's get some quick definitions out of the way because with all of these loopholes campaign Finance is a confusing and tricky Beast so there are just individuals who click the Donate button on their candidate's website and give them some money that way many politicians Like Bernie Sanders for example rely almost exclusively on this type of donation but obviously that type of donation is not accounting for 14.4 billion dollars in the 2020 election cycle for example and campaigns must disclose all donations of this type above a certain threshold this money is regulated and monitored by the FEC and is called hard money and there's nothing that Millionaires and billionaires hate more than accountability for what they do with their money so this will not do enter soft money while there are limits on the amount political action committees Pacs can donate to each election Pacs are permitted unlimited independent expenditures and outside spending for party building expenses these include Communications like flyers and ads going door to door and running phone Banks printing yard signs and other overhead expenses and before the year 2000 these packs were not required to publicly disclose who their donors were or register with the FEC rich people and corporations they loved this zero accountability for what I do with my money sign me up but then Revelations were made that Bill Clinton's re-election campaign received soft money donations in exchange for giving big donors overnight stays in the Lincoln bedroom and other favors Congress investigated but the laws didn't change until 2000 when Congress modified the tax law to require public disclosure of donors to Pax and in 2002 spurred on by the Enron Scandal Congress passed the bipartisan campaign reform or bcra which explicitly prohibited soft money and imposed disclosure requirements and funding restrictions on political ads it also raised the contribution limits for candidates who were running against millionaires who were using their own funds for campaign expenditures it included The Stand by your ad Clause that requires candidates to State their approval in each of their ads this is why you always hear candidates say I'm so and so and I approve this message it's because of the bcra and of course that is once again too much accountability for many rich people's liking and so many court battles ensued that slowly chipped away at the bcra this included Wisconsin Right to Life versus FEC which ruled that groups could use corporate or Union money to run ads just prior to elections as long as they didn't contain the functional equivalent of explicit advocacy for a specific party or candidate this paved the way for new ads during the 2008 presidential campaign relatively unregulated ads called issue ads this is where a group like the Wisconsin right to life and anti abortion advocacy group can run ads about an issue like abortion to try to influence an election without explicitly saying vote for the Republican and this plays right into the Republican tactic of using wedge issues like abortion or now trans kids to drive voters to the polls these organizations don't need to say vote for the Republican when they can just fear Monger voters about dead babies and trans people in bathrooms in a political landscape where things like abortion and trans rights are now incredibly partisan they don't have to say republican it's implied but that's okay because it's not the functional equivalent of explicit advocacy according to the Supreme Court which I think is willfully ignorant but what do I know the Supreme Court definitely must know best on this one I mean they are Untouched by corporate and billionaire interests the reason for this functional equivalent language and the carve out for issue ads is because of the First Amendment the ACLU was actually behind the legal challenges to the bcra this is where Free Speech absolutism can get in the way of common sense or other are issues that could take precedence the ACLU while doing great work is also willing to throw itself behind some questionable causes in the name of free speech the argument being that organizations like the Wisconsin Right to Life have the right to make issue ads under the First Amendment and a law that curbs their ability to run ads about whatever they want violates their free speech rights it's only when an ad becomes explicitly about a candidate that the government has a compelling enough interest to maintain the Integrity of Elections that it can curb the free speech of for example Wisconsin right to life the bcra was further chipped away in Davis versus FEC in which house candidate Jack Davis filed suit claiming that the millionaires Amendment and the bcra was unconstitutional this is the provision that raises contribution limits for candidates who are running against millionaires who are using their own funds to pay for their campaigns the idea being that the non-millionaire candidate should have a higher contribution limit to even the playing field and the Supreme Court sided with Davis saying that how an individual spends his or her Millions is protected speech and limiting that is a violation of their rights note that millionaires tend to be much more conservative than the average population see my video on how philanthropy ruined everything for more so a Court ruling that benefits Millionaires and billionaires is generally going to benefit Republicans the final most decisive blow to the bcra however came in 2010 in a ruling that sent U.S democracy careening on a trajectory the most predictable outcome of which was the Trump presidency that ruling is Citizens United versus FEC citizens united is a conservative non-profit organization founded in 1988. its mission statement says citizens united is dedicated to restoring our government to Citizens control through a combination of Education advocacy and Grassroots organization we seek to reassert the traditional American values of limited government freedom of Enterprise strong families and National sovereignty and security it does this largely through propagandized commercials and documentary films in 2008 citizens United created a documentary called Hillary the movie the film was purposefully negative of Hillary Clinton who was running against Barack Obama to be the Democratic nominee for president that year the movie was scheduled to be released right before the 2008 primary elections it was therefore deemed by the FEC to be an electioneering communication meaning an ad or other form of politically motivated communication coming out close in time to an election under the bcra corporations non-profits unions and other groups were banned from making electioneering Communications so the FEC intervened and did not allow the documentary to be televised so citizens united sued saying that their first amendment rights were being violated and in a 5-4 decision the Supreme Court sided with citizens united they ruled that corporations and by extension nonprofits and unions Etc are to be seen as people in a First Amendment analysis like this and since this non-profit speech is being curbed by the bcra's ban on their ability to release this documentary that has to be held to the highest scrutiny to see whether this curb of free speech is necessary to serve a compelling government interest and the Supreme Court said no the government's interest in curbing election influence was not outweighed by the Deep importance of protecting free speech for our country's most important citizens its corporations the decision nullified some of the restrictions on Direct Corporate involvement in elections that had been in place for over a hundred years the Court's opinion maintained that any concerns over undue influence from the influx of corporate cash would be mitigated by donor disclosure however citizens united combined with the many other decisions that had been chipping away at bcra for years meant that non-profits that don't disclose their donors now had a nearly unfettered ability to finance whatever political ads or movements they wanted to unchecked by the FEC the resulting explosion in political spending by dark money nonprofits nonprofits that don't have to disclose where they get their money from upended our elections in this country for good some experts believe that the Supreme Court didn't realize the full extent of the consequences of their ruling when combined with previous rulings and laws yikes and both sides of the aisle are guilty of benefiting from citizens united but it was particularly beneficial for Republicans who I've already said tend to be wealthier and tend to love non-profit giving as a way to lower their tax bill while still maintaining control over a vast swaths of money and politics see again my video on why philanthropy is ruining everything for more but that was actually the whole point of citizens united the attorney for Citizens United Jim Bob got his start in the right to life movement in the 1970s and quickly realized that campaign Finance laws were stifling conservatives ability to get their messages out he since challenged more than 150 campaign Finance laws across the country he's claimed that the message is what matters and where the money comes from is completely irrelevant to average voters and only matters to left-wing nut jobs well Jimmy my boy I've already been pegged in this comment section as a left-wing nut who is very annoying I even made merch about it so I guess your theory stands though I think if the average citizen knew a little bit more about campaign Finance laws and how money affects politics they might get on board with these left-wing nuts because boy is it Shady the aftermath of the citizens united decision was an immediate influx of cash from wealthy individuals corporations and trade organizations to dark money political nonprofits attempting not only to sway elections but also to sway the outcome of legislative sessions in Congress and in every state of the union for example in 2010 the National Association of Realtors spent over a million dollars in the state of Montana alone on a ballot initiative campaign to ban real estate transfer taxes a commonly used funding source for affordable housing the National Association of Realtors is now the largest lobbying group in the U.S spending 81 million dollars last year alone more recently Coke Industries spent over 20 million dollars just on promoting Trump's 2017 tax cut a tax cut that will save the Koch brothers and their heirs anywhere between 1 billion to 1.4 billion dollars every year in taxes and because of the same tax cut the number of companies paying zero tax dollars doubled in 2018. and this is just the absolute tip of the iceberg from foreign influences pouring dollars into Shady political non-profits to outside actors coming into local and state elections and legislatures to use their cash influence to go over the heads of state residents and change policy to benefit their business interests citizens united was the final blow to the delicate Dam that had been holding money back from completely flooding our elections for decades per Pew research in 1964 29 percent of Voters believed that government was being run by a few big interests just looking out for themselves by 2013 79 of Americans believed this it is in fact one of the few things that I think we can all agree on across ideological lines Obama when asked to reflect on the citizens united decision said I continue to believe that citizens united contributed to some of the issues we're seeing in Washington right now you have some ideological extremist who has a big bankroll and they can entirely skew our politics and there are a whole bunch of members of Congress who privately will tell you I know our positions are unreasonable but we're scared if we don't go along with the Tea Party agenda we'll be challenged by the right and the threats are very explicit so they toe the line and that's part of why we've seen a breakdown of just normal routine business done here in Washington on behalf of the American people and of course the tea party was the precursor to Maga and the alt-right Coalition running rampant in Congress today and on top of affecting day-to-day functionings of Congress and which bills get introduced in past the citizens united decision has also affected every election since 2010 from local to presidential the 2012 Presidential year election was the most expensive in U.S history at the time and spending has continued to break records in the decades since but that begs the question how much does money actually influence elections does more ad spending lead to better results at the polls for whoever spends the most the answer is more complicated than you might think according to 538 and the House of Representatives 90 percent of candidates who spend the most win from 2000 through 2016 there was only one election cycle where that wasn't true in 2010 it was 86 however this may be a case of correlation but not necessarily causation Decades of research suggest that money likely isn't actually the deciding factor in elections especially for incumbents in fact gains from spending are likely even less advantageous today in a period where voters are more intensely partisan there are probably very few people who are going to vote a split ticket meaning not a long party lines just because they liked your ad I know I personally do not rely on ads to decide who to vote for especially not television ads or mailers the mailers go straight to the recycling and you know that I'm just scrolling on Instagram during those TV ads I couldn't tell you the last time I was influenced to buy or do anything from a television ad and ads likely matter less the more campaigns spend on them like during presidential elections yes thank you Biden we already know who you are I don't need an ad to remind me you're my only option however while ad spending may not be outcome determinative for elections a study published in 2017 found that unlike in a general election early fundraising strongly predicted who would win primary races because it turns out that while Joe Biden making ads really isn't going to do much to sway the votes a relatively unknown candidate spending on ads early on especially if it's a local election that's less obviously split along partisan lines can have a profound impact on who wins or loses the election basically advertising is great for name recognition or making voters aware that a candidate or issue exists at all but beyond that you have a case of diminishing returns another example of where money absolutely matters during an election is in determining who's even capable of running for elected office to begin with research out of the University of Chicago suggests that as it becomes more and more normal for campaigns to spend astronomical amounts of money even at the local level fewer people decide to run for office and more of those who do decide to run are independently wealthy so while the end result of who wins may not be swayed much by campaign spending our current campaign Finance laws and the out of control campaign spending Works to enshrine power among the wealthy and well-known because the only way to win is to get early funding either out of your own pocket or through being well known so for example if you're a billionaire with a reputation you've been building for decades your chances of winning are pretty high this is actively thwarting the Democratic process by making it virtually impossible for working-class people to have representation in their own government and this ballooning campaign spending especially as we become more and more partisan driven apart by wedge issues that are easy to make splashy ads about will only get worse unless legislative action is taken to cut it off at the knees however as of right now any proposed Constitutional Amendments or proposed campaign Finance reform legislation that I can find is dead in the water y'all always asked me to give you more solutions to the problems I talk about in these videos but then get mad when I tell you to vote so while I do think you need to contact your representatives about campaign Finance reform and you need to vote in people who actually give a about this stuff here's some other things that you can do next year is an election year we know the presidential election is going to be a show so focus on what you can do in your community at a local or state level keep an eye out for candidates who you want to support give money early on before the primaries to candidates who you believe in studies show that this early funding can make a huge difference down the line volunteer early on in their campaigns to go door to door manage social media advertising give your skills whatever they are to promote your candidate of choice run for office yourself if you're a woman identifying check out she should run.org they have a starter kit including an overview of the different types of elected offices which you should run for and how to get started she should run also has resources if you'd like to get involved in helping get more women into elected office this but you don't want to run yourself there's also ready to run through the Rutgers Center for American women in politics which is a national network of non-partisan campaign training programs committed to electing more women to public office or check out the lgbtq plus Victory funds campaign training to help lgbtq folks run for office there's a ton of resources out there if you just take a look check out the work of organizations like the Brennan Center for justice that are working to fight for campaign Finance reform give your money or your time or your talents and stay informed also this comment section is a great place to crowdsource so please if you have some solutions throw them down below if you liked this video you might also like my video on how philanthropy is ruining everything thank you to my patreon supporters including my newest patrons and an extra special shout out to my multi-platinum Patron Brett Pian Tech if you're interested in more information on this video including access to my research and show notes or other content like behind the scenes stuff content about my dog and all sorts of other stuff consider joining me over on patreon today thanks so much for watching have a good day bye-bye