John Lowe: Democracy of the highest bidder

While we all know money runs politics, it was never more obvious than when businessman Bob Luddy went public with his decision to withhold his $25,000 donation to the state Republicans because he was not happy with the budget.

Many of us are unhappy with the budget or with other major state legislature decisions, but our voices do not count because we don’t have $25K to buy votes with.

Our “democracy” has become open to the highest bidder, and our highest authorities, like the U.S. Supreme Court, have made it not only acceptable but legal.

At least those who run for office could be honest about it and just say, “Donate to my campaign and I might listen to your ideas. Otherwise, I’m not interested.”

This story was originally published May 30, 2015 at 12:20 PM with the headline "John Lowe: Democracy of the highest bidder."