The Mysterious Funders of Republicans

The trend in democracies for half a century has been to push the notion of political transparency, ensuring that certain interests, contrary to the public good, do not weigh on the elections under cover of anonymity. Or, on the contrary, to ensure that a few super wealthy are not able to control an election. The American 2012 campaign is a tremendous leap backwards towards the past. We have gone back to the 19th century.

Almost all of the Republican campaign’s publicity spots have been financed by groups about which we know nothing. These organizations which have the status of “non-profit” are not obliged to reveal the identities of their members, but they cannot directly speak to the candidates. For example, one of these non-profit organizations criticizes Obama’s energy policies without explicitly attacking the 44th president. It is for this reason that after the explosion of Super PACs in the Republican primaries, we see a large number of new parties preferring to operate under cover.

According to a detailed Washington Post study, 99 percent of spots have been financed by anonymous parties. These negative spots have been distributed in the pivotal states of the presidential election, crucial to ensure the reelection of Barack Obama. While Super PACs are obliged by electoral law to reveal the names of their contributors, these groups prefer to operate against the modern democratic principles of transparency. For example, one of these principal groups, Crossroads GPS, raised $40 million in funds in the first three months of the year aimed at attacking Obama, without our knowing the identity of the people behind these funds. In the meantime, American Crossroads, the Super PACs affiliated with Crossroads, only raised $10 million. Ninety percent of the $76 million raised by Crossroads GPS since its formation comes from rich contributors who have given a million each. Two of them gave 10 million each. We would like to know who they are. Quite a strange idea of democracy.

In comparison, the pro-Obama groups have spent very little: $1.1 million for two groups, one for the environment, the other representing local government officials. The electoral cycle is therefore going to break all the records. We thought that 2012 would be an election costing a billion dollars; we can predict that, the day after next November 6, this record will have been largely broken and that the majority of funds spent by and for the candidates will have come from sources who prefer to remain hidden from American citizens, who have a right, however, to know who finances the election of their president. A democracy becoming more and more opaque.