Public Wants Our System Of Financing Campaigns Changed

Thanks to some misguided Supreme Court decisions, a flood of money from corporations and the super-rich has entered our system of financing campaigns -- and many of those donations are done in secret. It is allowing the rich to dominate our campaigns simply because of the huge contributions they can now donate to help elect the people they want -- and it has muffled to voices of the common people.

The Republican like the new rules that allow the rich to donate secretly because they are the recipients of most of that new money flowing into the system -- and they have blocked attempts to change things and limit the money. But once again, they may be playing with fire. As the charts above show, the American people don't like this new rule by the rich (through the massive donations they can make).

About 75% say citizens no longer have an equal chance to have their voices heard today, 54% say money donated to campaigns is not a form of free speech, 84% say money has too much influence in our campaign system, 77% say there should be a limit on campaign donations, 78% say all groups spending money on campaigns should be required to disclose who their donors are, 55% say politicians support the policies of their biggest donors most of the time, and 85% say our campaign finance system should either be fundamentally changed or blown up and rebuilt.

Those are some big numbers -- and they show that Americans are losing faith in our political system. They believe the system is now controlled by the corporations and the super-rich, and that politicians now just exist to serve the rich. We must change this before we completely lose our democracy -- even if it means passing a constitutional amendment.

These numbers are taken from the new CBS News / New York Times Poll done between May 28th and 31st of a national random sample of 1,022 adults, with a margin of error of 3 points.