A money ruled republic.

FANG, LEE. "Look Who's Buying The Election." Nation 295.12 (2012): 11-17. Academic Search Complete. Web. 30 Oct. 2012.

The U.S Supreme court's 2010 Citizens United ruling has resulted in the buying out of elections all over the country. Citizens United gave corporations unlimited say in elections by decreasing PAC regulations and opening up loopholes that basically allows money laundering. Billions of dollars have already been spent in just the two years after the ruling towards campaign ads favoring big business candidates. Our nation is slowly becoming a corporate and 1% run nation because as more money goes to politicians the greater the chance of them winning the election and once in office their policies will favor the corporations or individuals that funded them. Ads funded by PACs in the 2010 midterm elections were the main cause for the house turn over. Big investors were found in oil companies who came together in associations like the American Petroleum Institute; unhappy with Obama's Environmentalist views they funded Republicans and pro-oil candidates to take over Washington.The biggest benefactors from Citizens United have been trade associations or 501(c)(6) organizations. These associations are very similar to PACs and Super PACs but the major difference is disclosure; even though restrictions were lessened on PACs they are still required to disclose donors, which often backfires for corporations because they could lose costumers. On the other hand, trade associations are not required to disclose information except in certain cases, and those cases become public a full year after the donation is made, and even then specifics about the corporations who donated are omitted. This means that often only the people involved know what is going on leaving the rest of the public and media oblivious to the extent of corruption and government control these organizations have. The obvious negative affect in this system is that not only can wealthy individuals run our country through PACs but now multi-billion corporations can control Washington through trade associations. However a hidden affect that many people fail to notice is that 501(c)(6) organizations also allow foreign business interference in our government.

"Current FEC rules allow a foreign-owned corporation tospend in an American election as long as its subsidiary is registeredin the United States, the money used for electioneering isgenerated from US-based operations, and the election spendingdecisions are made by American citizens or green-card holders."

Trade associations are able to avoid the above rules because the lack of disclosure, corrupt use of loopholes, and money exchanges makes foreign contributors practically untraceable and impossible to monitor.  Now companies like Aramco, a Saudi Arabian Oil Company, are donating billions to influence U.S elections in their favor without much care for the American citizen. The worst part is that Washington is full of  PAC and 501(c)(6) funded politicians so any attempts to challenge citizens united or raise restrictions are quickly shut down, including Presidential Executive Orders. President Obama suggested passing an Executive Order to force organizations to disclose contributors, and outrage emerged, associations came together to help support legislation that would stop the President from enacting his Order, and the succeeded. If corporations even have control over the President, how can we call ourselves a country "by the people, for the people"?

Lee Fang uses a number of credible quotes from former FEC employees, and statistics concerning specific relevant legislation and reports. It is easy to tell that he is biased and opposed to PACs, but quite honestly the general public is, it's difficult to find supporters of PACs who aren't big businesses. However I feel like his data was well presented and honest, as well as easy to confirm and further research in order to find the opposing view. The most persuasive point he make's is the influence of foreign corporations in our country. Any normal American would be outraged to learn that corporations in Saudi Arabia or China are influencing our government and helping to put people in office, who make decisions concerning our lives. I was certainly disgusted by that news and the level of influence money has in our decisions. Overall it was an extremely informative article and it clearly explains what PACs and trade associations are and how they were developed and the negative affects they have on our country. It also gives insight to how our political process is changing and the effects that Citizens United has had in just two years.