There is already a winner in the midterm elections, broadcast TV, with direct mail coming in second. U.S.A. Today reports that research from PQ Media shows that this election now holds the record for the most spent, $3.1 billion dollars, with $1.5 billion going to broadcast TV, $707 million to direct mail, with radio coming in third, getting $254 million.

Why is so much being poured into this election and is this really good for the common good? The reason this election is so crucial is that the outcome will have a huge effect on the course this nation takes or doesn’t take. If the Republicans win, the country will “stay the course,” and not just in Iraq, but domestically as well. If the Democrats win, President Bush will be in for the same thing President Clinton got when he faced a Republican Congress, investigations galore. He won’t have a rubberstamp Congress any more.

So, while we can see why so much money is being pored into the elections, we have to ask just how good this way of determining who will run the country is. People don’t spend big bucks for nothing. The candidate who spends the most money doesn’t always win, but quite often he does, and, in most cases, if one side has a lot of money and the other almost none, the one with the money will win.

As Will Rogers so famously said back in the thirties, “We have the best Congress money can buy.” Here it is 2006 and what he said still applies; in fact, it is probably truer today than it was then. Will that change if the Democrats take back control of Congress? Will the lobbyists lose their hold on Congress? I don’t think so. Democrats who do manage to get elected also get impressive campaign contributions. Do the PAC’s favor one party over another? Yep. In 2004, according to the Associated Press, corporate PAC’s give ten times as much to Republicans as Democrats.

Will campaign spending reform change it? We’ve had a few reforms over the years, but if politicians know how to do anything, it’s the manufacture of loopholes. For instance, corporations can’t make campaign contributions, but their Political Action Committees can and do big time. There are limits on giving to candidates, but no limits when it comes to giving to party committees.
“You get what you pay for,” you might say, or maybe, in the case of politics, you should say, “You get who you pay for.”