Why Dark Money is a Problem for Everyone Other than Those in Power

The general public is aware of corruption in the government in the form of backroom deals, money changing hands behind the scenes, and favors being given in exchange for favors. There are plenty of ways for the government to be bought and the public has to rely on watchdog groups to track the money or favors back to their sources. Then, there’s a bigger problem.

“Dark Money” is worse than you could possibly imagine. It represents conservatively hundreds of millions of dollars in campaign donations that have very little possible tracking. It involves the biggest of the big corporations and the most powerful of the top government officials. It is, in essence, a method through which interested parties are able to buy favors without anyone publicly knowing about it. The worst part is that it’s currently perfectly legal.

With dark money donations, corporations give large amounts of money to non-profit charities that influence the target politicians. If you want to give a hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars to the candidate of choice, you go through super-PACS. If you want to donate big money, you go through non-profits. That’s the irony.

Republicans fear losing it because big alleged donors contribute hundreds of millions to them. President Obama tried to do it in 2011, only to have a mysterious change of heart. It’s one of those rare cases where an executive order would be justified and it’s a situation where Congress has had plenty of time to change it themselves but haven’t. Now, they’re both just pointing fingers.

I’m not sure if there’s any real reason to talk about it. While I’m a firm believer that change can be made by the people based upon knowledge and fortitude, this is one of those situations that’s too big to change yet to small to notice. That’s the point. It may be time, for once, to accept defeat and acknowledge that there’s no way to end this form of corruption, at least in the short term. Defeat stings.

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