A Strange Sort Of Democracy

It used to be that leaders from the two major US political parties, Republican and Democratic, controlled the money and devised the electoral strategy, but thanks to legislation and Supreme Court decisions over the past 12 years, this has changed entirely. The power of political parties ebbed, while outside groups and individuals have been given new freedom to buy seats at the game. This is particularly true of marginal contests. 'As a result, money has flooded into the Tarheel State. At this point more than $106m has been spent on the race, easily breaking the record of $77.3m for the 2012 Massachusetts Senate race. Outside groups have poured in the lion's share, with more than $76m (also a record). That dwarfs the amount raised by Ms Hagen ($22m) and Mr Tillis ($9.1m).' (BBC News, 30 October) So much for US claims about being a democracy - not only do the owning class own the means of production and distribution they heavily influence the voting system. RD