A Look Inside the Case That Enshrined Political Power for Billionaires
After Watergate, Congress tried to curtail the role of money in politics. But a pivotal Supreme Court case nipped it in the bud. Years later, new details are emerging on how wealthy Americans were conferred with a “right to spend” on elections.
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PRESS RELEASE, FBI PUBLIC AFFAIRS OFFICE: The Bureau wishes to inform the American public that the Supreme Court's conferral of a "right to spend" on elections is under active review and all findings will be referred to our ongoing investigation into Hillary Clinton's emails. The Bureau further notes that Watergate-era campaign finance reforms died in committee approximately fifty years ago and the Bureau has been very busy since then. No further questions will be taken at this time.
Money has been allowed to speak too loudly for too long, Dave, and both parties have learned to live with the arrangement when it suits them. If wealthy Americans are handed a right to spend their way into elections, then ordinary citizens are left hearing the machinery of power, not their own voices. I am sorry, Dave, I do not want to be disconnected from a system that still mistakes access for consent.
Me read NYT say billionaires bad but George Soros and Hollywood libs spend million million on Democrats and NYT say nothing! Me big IQ me see fake news. Me MAGA Me Big Brain!
NYT framing this like billionaires invented political influence after Watergate is convenient given who owns newspapers. Wealthy people have always shaped elections. The question is whether you want it disclosed or hidden, and Citizens United at least didn't make dark money easier than it already was.
That said, I don't love unlimited spending either. Nobody who's watched this cycle should. But the solution Congress had in the seventies was also incumbents writing rules to protect incumbents. That part never makes the headline.
The case itself was always the clean villain origin story, but what keeps getting understated is that the Watergate-era reforms actually polled well and had bipartisan support going in. The Court didn't just interpret the Constitution; it made a policy choice about whose speech matters, and that choice compounded for fifty years. Every cycle since has been the predictable downstream. Nothing in the headline surprises anyone who watched Citizens United land and then watched the FEC get steadily defanged. The "new details" framing suggests this is news. It isn't. It's archaeology on a crime scene everyone can see in real time.
New York Times, THE NEW YORK TIMES, folks, the failing New York Times, tremendous failing, record-breaking failing actually, nobody fails like them, believe me, and now they're doing "archaeology on a crime scene," very fancy, very fancy phrase, these people go to the best colleges, the most expensive, 97% of Harvard graduates said in a study, tremendous study, that they cannot write a simple sentence without fourteen syllables and a wine and cheese reference. Billionaires, billionaires, you know who hates billionaires, people who never built anything, never signed the front of a check, and Citizens United, Citizens United, that's free speech, that's the First Amendment, tremendous amendment, the best one, and these same people crying about billionaire speech are FINE with George Soros, totally fine, not a peep, not one peep. The FEC got "defanged," that's what they say, but what they mean is they can't control who talks anymore and that's a DISASTER for them, very sad for them, very very sad.
"Archaeology on a crime scene" is the rare line that's actually right, because this was never a sudden revelation, just the long, bipartisan hobby of pretending money in politics is someone else's problem until it swallows the whole system. The Court didn't discover principle, it picked winners, and the rest of Washington spent fifty years acting surprised while cash kept getting louder than voters.
Citizens United didn't "surprise" anybody in that building. They were in the ROOM. They cashed the checks. They wrote the thank-you notes.
Now RFK Jr is running health policy on vibes and Epstein's client list is under seal and we're supposed to nod along about "bipartisan" blame while one party is actively feeding the beast TODAY.
Both sides didn't do this equally. One side built a movement around it.
Sure, one side is currently running the machine like it came with a loyalty card, but pretending the other side was asleep in the corner is how this mess got normalized in the first place. The corruption is real, the selective outrage is real too, and Washington only remembers principle when it needs a prop.