An arms race for campaign cash now dominates American politics, imperiling our ...

A ritzy campaign event in the American Southwest: Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, Kari Lake and Republican nominee for Arizona’s 8th congressional district Abraham Hamadeh speaking with attendees at a fundraiser in Paradise Valley, Arizona. (Photo: Gage Skidmore, reproduced under a Creative Commons license)

The instruments of American politics used to include congealed pizza slices and stale doughnuts, fueling staff and volunteers putting together political fundraising appeals. It was a laborious process, but in the immortal words spoken by California’s House Speaker Jess Unruh, money is the mother’s milk of politics.

Technology has transformed campaigning. Instead of addressing envelopes, pressing an index finger on a keyboard can send out zillions of appeals for bucks. Campaign work seems governed by one iron rule: The more you demand, the more you get.

My inbox is driven these days by Donald Trump, both for him and against him.

Consider this appeal from a leading Democratic fundraising organizer. “We will retake our democracy from our new King George,” proclaimed the appeal from former U.S. Ambassador to Switzerland and Liechtenstein Suzi LeVine. Trump counters with a cornucopia of lies and the claim Democrats would “destroy” America.

Limits on money used to date to the presidency of Theodore Roosevelt. The U.S. Supreme Court, a few years ago, stripped all limitation and restraint when it decided * Citizens United Corporations United v. Federal Election Commission*. The underlined premise, as Mitt Romney put it in speaking at the Iowa State Fair, is that corporations are people, despite bearing no resemblance to natural persons.

With so much on the line last cycle, each side spent over a billion dollars trying to win over voters. Aside from consultants, strategists, pollsters, and lawyers, much of that money went to companies that own television stations and streaming platforms, like Sinclair, Cox, Tegna, or Google. And the money kept right on flowing after the election was over. Donald Trump’s on again, off again buddy Elon Musk memorably shelled out $25 million in support of a losing Wisconsin Supreme Court candidate.

Themes of the money wars:

• Fear: Rarely does a money appeal bespeak the bettering of America. It”s all about the other guy. Trump is depicted as the rescuer from those who would “destroy” the Republic. Or the country must be rescued from him.
• Greed: Trump is about power, vengeance and self-enrichment. The bucks from small donors have put television spots on the air, but also paid the legal bills of our convicted felon occupant of the Oval Office.
• Quantity: In the era of Trump, money is becoming the sole criteria for evaluating candidacies. Ideas and intelligence have no place. Consider such Trump toadies as Sens. Marsha Blackburn, R‑Tennessee and Tommy Tuberville, R‑Alabama.
• Access: Trump keeps company with super rich guys, and works — to the extent that he works at all — to make them richer. Hence, as the inequality gap has grown, so has the access gap in American politics and government.

Meanwhile, north of the border, dealing with Trump has become the preeminent issue in Canadian politics. It has revived a center-left Liberal Party once headed for a landslide loss. In Mark Carney, the Great White North has picked a Prime Minister who skillfully stands up to Trump without needlessly antagonizing him.

We seem headed for another billion dollar-plus campaign cycle this year.

Donald Trump has effectively made politics a game for the very rich and further disconnected the American people from their government.

And that government has become a force of unprecedented cruelty.