I resent the way political players characterize elections as sport – “running out the clock,” “a flag on the play,” “a race” – when who wins and what policies they enforce have such a direct impact on people’s lives. Government is not a game. Democracy is not a game. And politics should not be played like a game.

Bill Seitz, the majority leader of the Ohio House, jeered at his Democratic opponents after literally running out the clock to have gerrymandered redistricting kept in place.  “Too bad so sad,” he tweeted. “We win again…the game is over and you lost.”

In fact, politics is less sport than an incredibly profitable industry – billions of dollars worth – and the “coaches,” the political consultants – are laughing all the way to the bank. The industry has grown exponentially since the radical activist, anti-democratic Supreme Court majority overturned precedent along with the spirit and letter of the Constitution and democracy in its Citizens United decision in 2010. By equating cash with free speech, they effectively give soulless corporations and pseudo-PACs more political sway than living, breathing people.

In the decade since Citizens United, “the balance of political power shifted from political parties to outside groups that can spend unlimited sums to bolster their preferred candidates. Election-related spending from non-party independent groups ballooned to $4.5 billion over the decade. It totaled just $750 million over the two decades prior,” Open Secrets, a research organization tracking money in politics, reported. “Despite promises from the [Supreme] court that monied interests would be required to reveal their political giving, the ruling gave new powers to dark money organizations. Groups that don’t disclose their donors flooded elections with $963 million in outside spending, compared to a paltry $129 million over the previous decade.”

Political spending in the 2020 election totaled $14.4 billion, more than double the record-breaking 2016 presidential election cycle. Two-thirds of that came from “dark money” groups – that is, huge pots of money where the public is kept in the dark as to who makes the donations (like the Kochs and the Heritage Foundation). Spending in state and local campaigns now is also off the charts, effectively nationalizing every election.

“The Supreme Court’s decision in the landmark Citizens United v. FEC case overturned decades of precedent, deregulated corporate campaign spending, and allowed billions of dollars in dark money to flow into our election,” writes Democratic Congressman Adam Schiff. “This terrible decision resulted in an endless deluge of sensationalized and misinformed political ads which have divided and disillusioned our country. Dark money has weakened the voices of our people and opened the door for anti-democratic interests to sway the tides of public opinion.”

Leonard A. Leo, who has been basically choosing the extremist justices and judges for a decade as head of the Federalist Society, “helms a web of dark money groups that have raised over $580 million in recent years and has been trying to roll back decades of precedent on reproductive freedom, LGBTQ+ rights, environmental protections, the separation of church and state, and more,” as the nonprofit news organization truthout.com reported.

Leo, has just gotten a “gift” of $1.6 billion for his Marble Freedom Trust from a single billionaire donor, Barre Seid, likely the largest ever made in politics (and why billionaires and corporations don’t pay their fair share of taxes).

In contrast, you, as an individual and a voter, are limited to donating $2,900 per candidate per election; $2,000 per candidate committee and $5000 for PAC or multi-candidate. No wonder policies that are wildly popular (gun safety, climate action, voting rights, women’s rights) are deep-sixed.

Is there anything more absurd and anti-democratic in a country supposedly founded on “We the People” than giving a soulless corporation, whose existence is entirely based on maximizing profit and exists in a singular self-interest, the ability to spend an unlimited amount of Other People’s Money to literally buy politicians and policy that might actually go against the best interests of shareholders, employees/workers, clients and customers, the community and society in which they live?

“Tens of millions of dollars in anonymous money propped up the SCOTUS nominations of Brett Kavanaugh, Neil Gorsuch, and Amy Coney Barrett,”  Democratic Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse writes. “Who wrote those checks? Do they have business before the court?” He adds, “My Disclose Act will shine a light on who’s funding this operation. The American people need to know who is pulling the strings in their government.”

Campaign finance is so lucrative, it has also become a racket, a grift, a con. Trump actually raised $500 million AFTER losing the 2020 election on his “Big Lie” – $250 million alone after the Jan. 6 insurrection and millions more after every criminal charge, indictment or investigation, like the raid to recover top-secret documents from Mar-a-Lago.

Enough is enough. Restore some semblance of democracy:

Reverse Citizens United.

Pass the Disclose Act – voters should always know who is sponsoring, benefiting from ads, and material and who is responsible for statements. The Disclose Act (S.443) would close major loopholes in the current donor disclosure laws, strengthen bans on using foreign money for electioneering purposes, require campaign ads to list the top donors who underwrite advertisements.

In the absence of congressional action (the House has passed the Disclose Act twice in 2021; the Senate hasn’t been able to overcome the filibuster), President Biden can use his executive authority to require large federal contractors to disclose their political spending.

Truth in Political Advertising – campaign ads should be subject to same rules and standards as consumer products; it should be illegal to knowingly hype falsehoods about an opponent or issues; to defame, libel, commit fraud or deceive voters about elections (wrong date, place, threatening arrest if they vote with an outstanding parking ticket).

Have the FEC actually function, monitor, regulate and hold accountable violations of campaign finance law.

Here’s my most controversial proposal: Limit the amount that can be donated from outside the constituency, regardless if federal, state or local to, say 20 percent, including PACs and lobbyists. Every election should not be nationalized; people should have more say in their own elections. This would also bring back campaign spending to more earthly levels.