GOP Wants All Campaign Donations Secret

The Republicans are now going too far in their efforts to sell their services to the richest bidders. Thanks to the Supreme Court's ridiculous Citizens United decision, they have already accomplished removing any limits on campaign donations. Now they want to make all campaign donations secret.

Leading the charge for this are Mitch McConnell and Karl Rove. They say those ornery Democrats are trying to embarrass the rich people and corporations giving millions of dollars to support Republican candidates, and they afraid these shy donors will stop giving if everyone knows who they are. They claim it is a violation of the free speech rights of rich people to make their giving public.

That's ridiculous. What they are proposing is a violation of every American's right to know who is trying to buy favor with their elected government. In a democracy, all campaign donations and campaign spending should be out in the open, and accessible to anyone who wants to know about it. There's already too many donations and too much spending done in secret, and every dollar given or spent in secret is a step away from a true democracy. How can a democracy exist when no one knows who their elected officials are truly beholden to?

When the Supreme Court decided Citizens United, they said the public knowing who was giving the money would prevent corruption -- and the Republicans agreed. Now they want to change the rules. This is just so wrong. We should be moving toward more electoral transparency -- not less.