Since Citizens United essentially ended any control over political contributions in the United States, political fund-raising has become obscene and disgusting. The going rate for a presidential campaign seems to be in the range of $1 billion.
In contrast, Great Britain is in hotly contested parliamentary elections (which will also determine the next prime minister). By law there, each political party is limited to spending $29.5 million in the year prior to the election -- and that's for all their candidates for seats in parliament.
One of the biggest differences is that their election laws prohibit commercial televised political ads. Instead, the parties are given free broadcasts on both commercial television and on the BBC.
In the interest of "free speech" (aka big money interests), we've tried the opposite of regulation -- and it has proved to be a disaster. Maybe we should pay attention to our big sister nation across the pond.
The problem now is that it's very hard to put the toothpaste back into the tube. It will probably take a constitutional amendment.
Ralph
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