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Transcript

Om Patel

  1. 0:00 So does money decide who wins an election?
  2. 0:05 Running for office in the United States is very incredibly expensive.
  3. 0:09 You need money for TV ads, social media, social media campaigns, travel, and staff.
  4. 0:14 Because of that, a lot of politicians rely hugely on big donors that support their and support and fund their campaigns.
  5. 0:20 Um supporters say that it's just free speech.
  6. 0:23 People and companies should be allowed to support whoever they want, which is fair.
  7. 0:26 But others argue that this gives the rich way too much influence.
  8. 0:30 If someone donates millions to the campaign, they might expect social treat or special treatment later.
  9. 0:35 It's not always about, you know, who has the best ideas anymore.
  10. 0:38 It's almost who has the biggest budget, who can fund me the most, who can, you know, help boost my campaign to the next level.
  11. 0:44 I think we need a campaign finance reform so that elections aren't just about are just primarily about leadership and trust, not about money and marketing yourself to the point where you're just seeking these big donations from these donors.

Thomas Freer

  1. 0:00 Yeah, um uh this is a great great discussion.
  2. 0:03 And I actually posted something similar about a day ago.
  3. 0:06 But one of the things I left out that you touched on was that you know, these super high net worth individuals are donating to these political campaigns, they might expect special treatment.
  4. 0:19 And I didn't touch on that, but that's you know, at the root of it, that's one of the worst things that can come out of the um unlimited money being able to be donated in these elections.
  5. 0:31 You know, that literally makes rich people, their voice matters more than people who are, you know, not even just less fortunate, just normal people who can't donate millions of dollars to a political campaign.
  6. 0:47 Um and that's not what it should be.
  7. 0:49 It's supposed to be every vote counts the same.
  8. 0:52 And if you're you're able to just buy influence, influence your way through a political campaign and then have that guy in office or woman in office uh backing whatever helps your uh investments or companies, uh, that's that's just not what it should be.