U.S. Capitol Police surround protestors who volunteer to be arrested during a demonstration against Money Politics on Capitol Hill in Washington D.C., the United States, on April 18, 2016. Few hundreds of protestors were arrested, according to demonstration organizers.(Photo: Xinhua/Yin Bogu)
Public outrage at U.S. presidential campaigns over big money in politics, which culminated in week-long protests outside Capitol Hill, showed the democracy Uncle Sam had flaunted is hypocritical.
Over the past week, American voters' anger and frustration were on full display on Capitol Hill, where thousands of activists held rallies and staged sit-ins to protest big money in politics and barriers to voting.
Such outrage among ordinary American people, despite their races, genders and the political parties they belong to, is so strong and persistent that it has set the tone for the 2016 presidential campaign.
An AP-GFK poll on Saturday showed that almost eight in 10 Americans say they are dissatisfied or angry with the way the federal government is working. Why? Because money has infiltrated into the veins of the U.S. political system and violated ordinary people's rights to express their opinions.
In April 2014, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that limits on the total amount of money individuals can give to candidates, political parties and political action committees are unconstitutional, which opened the door for big money in politics.
Former President Jimmy Carter told a radio program last year that the United States is now an "oligarchy" in which "unlimited political bribery" has created "a complete subversion of our political system as a payoff to major contributors."
Even Republican front-runner Donald Trump criticized the influence of large campaign contributions and said he cannot be bought. But ironically, the billionaire real estate mogul, who himself participated in political donations in the past, is a perfect example of big money in politics.
For Hillary Clinton, her profound relationship with Wall Street has helped her take a lead in the Democratic presidential primaries but also has become an important reason why she is unpopular among many voters -- too many enterprises and rich people are paying for her campaign.
At a fundraiser organized by Hollywood actor George Clooney and his wife Amal in Los Angeles on Saturday, for two seats at the head table with Clinton, a couple must contribute or raise a whopping 353,400 U.S. dollars. Single tickets cost 33,400 dollars.
However, it seems not easy for people's voices against big money in politics to be heard in the United States.
On Monday, the final day of the protests outside Capitol Hill, about 300 demonstrators were taken into custody, bringing the total number of arrests to more than 1,200.
The demonstration, one of the largest acts of civil disobedience in Washington's history according to its organizers, received extremely minimal coverage in U.S. mainstream cable news.
To the contrast, what Western media outlets care about are corrupt politics in other countries, for instance, they are busy covering the impeachment process against Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff.
"It's really a shame that the cable news and big outlets did not cover us because this was people trying to make their voice heard," said Adam Eichen, one of the protests' organizers.
The growing influence of big money in U.S. elections will not only erode democracy, but also worsen social disparity. Public outrage at the phenomenon should not be neglected any more.
