Editorial | The old left party is the favorite of the rich in the US

Yrunning for president of the usa is an expensive hobby. Democratic candidates Joe Biden and Kamala Harris have announced that they have raised more than a billion dollars for their campaign this year. Donald Trump’s fundraising result is said to be around 700 million.

There are two parts to election financing: public and shadowy. The campaigns regularly report on the progress of their fundraising. That information can be used as a thermometer that tells about citizens’ moods.

President Joe Biden’s weakness was visible earlier and more clearly in fundraising than in support numbers. The atmosphere changed when Biden transferred his campaign to Harris, who raised a record 81 million dollars in one day. In August, Harris raked in $174 million to Trump’s $61 million.

In September, after a successful election debate, Harris reportedly received 47 million in donations during the day. One fundraising dinner in New York alone brought Harris 27 million.

The rich buy access to power with money. However, many donations to Harris also come in small amounts from ordinary people.

According to the law, a maximum of $3,300 can be donated to the campaign, but the restriction does not apply to associations supporting candidates. Through them, anonymous donors can support candidates in principle without limits.

For a long time, Democrats were more critical of campaign money than Republicans because they believed that donors could use the support to buy policies they liked. However, the Supreme Court exempted donations from support associations in 2010, comparing donating money to freedom of speech. Since then, the amount of election money has risen rapidly – especially for the Democrats. Since 2010, party presidential candidates have spent more public campaign money than Republicans.

Most of the money is spent on advertising on TV and online. Harris’s campaign organization has about 1,200 people on its payroll, Trump’s has 320. Knocking on doors and driving to polling stations can have their own meaning in getting the last votes.

Pelections are still not resolved with a lot of money. In 2016, Hillary Clinton had a larger electoral pool than Trump, who financed his campaign largely out of his own pocket. Trump bridged the campaign finance gap by using free publicity and data-driven targeted marketing.

Researchers are unsure how much pouring money into the campaign will ultimately pay off. However, in the last few meters of the election, everything is at stake. In the coming weeks, billionaires will write their biggest checks.

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The lines and supporters of the main parties change.

The upheaval in election financing tells interesting things about the change in politics. In the United States, the lines and supporters of the main parties change from time to time like the poles of the earth. That change is underway again.

Republicans used to be the party of the rich. Some of the old money families still support the Republicans, but many of them are not enthusiastic about Trump. In place of those who left, Trump has gained new supporters, such as the extraordinary business genius Elon Musk. Trump has promised him a central position in his administration.

The biggest single supporter of the election is Tim Mellon, the heir to a family rich in railroads, who has given Trump’s support association $125 million. Little is known about Mellon, and it is not easy to find even a photograph of him. Many super-rich people want to operate in the dark, and all election financiers may never be found out.

Dthe Democratic Party previously represented the working class and low-income earners. Now the party has gained wealthy supporters from those who have become rich in the new economy, who support the Democrats for reasons of value. For them, for example, the environment and the rights of minorities are important. In the United States, not only the people are divided, but also the elite.

The Democrats are becoming the party of the liberal new elite. Republicans, on the other hand, commit to traditional values ​​and declare that they represent ordinary people. Leftism and rightism change places – or lose their meaning once and for all.

The editorials are HS’s positions on a current topic. The articles are prepared by HS’s editorial department, and they reflect the journal principle line.