Small donors are too powerful? Tell that to Clarence Thomas
To the editor: Jonah Goldberg is improper to say small donors are wrecking American politics. The few dozen households who contribute a lot of the cash raised by Republican candidates need just one factor out of their candidates: tax cuts.
They don’t need laws, social applications or unions. Their elected representatives say no to virtually all laws, creating the gridlock that turns off voters who suppose nothing will get executed in Washington or native authorities.
They really feel their vote doesn’t matter, and that’s the plan. The wealthy love the established order.
Folks have to get sensible to the truth that the rich have arrange as a system that sends many of the cash their manner. Residents have to vote and ship folks to state and federal legislatures who will tax wealth and break the maintain of the wealthy on the levers of energy.
The current instance of their maintain on Supreme Court docket justices ought to alert folks to simply who the rich are getting elected to our legislatures.
Michael Hittleman, Los Angeles
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To the editor: Goldberg ignores the precise drawback in favor of a straw man.
In Ohio’s current election on amending the state Structure, one out-of-state donor, the Uihlein household, contributed virtually half of all donations to the dropping “sure” facet, however was swamped by the 1000’s of small donors to the “no” facet.
The explanation the Republican legislators reversed themselves to permit an August election was to fulfill the wishes of mega donors like Richard Uihlein who know they’ll’t win a good plebiscite on abortion. It’s the identical cause Republicans have majorities within the Ohio Normal Meeting — the massive sums donated by billionaires that native candidates can’t presumably match.
Until we take away the unequal affect of mega donors, our democratic republic will proceed to be at risk.
John Gallogly, Los Angeles
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To the editor: Goldberg is on to one thing, however he doesn’t go far sufficient.
Each giant and small donors have outsized affect on quite a few facets of how Washington and the remainder of this nation perform. Higher to enact full marketing campaign finance reform and have all prices for qualifying candidates paid by the federal government itself.
Any particular person who desires to assist a candidate get elected can volunteer as a lot of their time as they need. In the event that they nonetheless wish to do extra, they’ll all the time examine the field on the finish of their tax return.
Thomas Miller, Lengthy Seaside
