Q: What do you get for spending 6 billion $ on an election campaign in the US?
A: You maintain the status quo. The President is re-elected, the House of Representatives remains Republican and Democrats maintain their majority in the Senate.
This demonstrates that campaign donations are less effective than people hope, but also less dangerous than other people fear. I feel vindicated by this because I have always argued with the cynics who claimed that money buys elections, especially in America. Defending democracy against this cynicism, I have always pointed out that the millionaire has one vote, the billionaire has one vote, I have one vote and the homeless guy has one vote. That’s democracy. Money does not buy you any extra vote.
The Happy Hermit 
It doesn’t show that money didn’t have an effect on the outcome. The spending on both sides could have shifted votes, but just roughly cancelled out!
But there were numerous races and ballot measures where one side outspent the other side 5-1, 6-1 or even 10-1 and lost.
We didn’t have a control. Without all the spending, the results might have been different. There’s a case to be made that the country is shifting toward the Left and the moneyed influence on this election offset that shift to some degree.
I’m leaning toward what Robert said, with one proviso. Take a look back at the ads, no matter how painful that might be for us folks in Ohio. These ads have been less detailed and more negative than in previous campaigns. Yes, I would like to see far less money in politics, especially the idiotic decision behind Citizens United. But I would like to see whatever ads are out there, explain – WITH DETAILS – how each player thinks he can do for the country. Questioning people’s business ethics and birthplace are destructive – if you must spend money, use it to educate the populace, not to make them blindly hate.
I kind of feel that the American media tried to make this election seem much closer than it actually was. Most serious candidates, say Michael Bloomberg, stayed out the race, because they knew that beating Obama was not likely. However, the media hates a boring race, so they cooked up plenty of controversial “candidates” who really didn’t reflect how even Republican voters think, such as Rick Santorum.
It is hard to believe that a millionaire and a billionaire can not buy themselves hundreds of extra votes and continue glamorizing the democracy. I would rather instead put pressure of reelected president to study the arguments of the opponent and see what can be done to better the country.
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