Griffin

Oswald
November 2016
UWRT 1103

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Defense Paper

In 2010 the United States supreme court made a decision that drastically changed
American politics and has threaten the very fabric of democracy. (Huskerson) The decision was

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on Citizens United v. FEC, and the supreme court decided that it is acceptable for corporations

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and labor unions to spend as much money as they want to convince people to vote for or

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against a political candidate as long as the money doesnt go to that candidate directly. The
supreme court saw this as an extension of freedom of speech and as John Dunbar, a political

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analyst, put it "Spending is speech, and is therefore protected by the Constitution even if the
speaker is a corporation."(Dunbar) It was through this decision that Super PACs were created.

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(Wertheimer)
My goal is to create an interactive exhibit that will explain the corruption caused by

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Super PACs to American voters. I have constructed a fake ballot box that will be placed outside
voting centers. These ballot boxes will be duplicated and will be displayed at polling centers all
over the United States. This is a good location to run this interactive exhibit since voters are the
ones who can truly make a difference, and by learning about the issue of campaign donations
voters can make a more informed decision about who they elect, as certain candidates are
more likely to try and overturn citizens united or appoint supreme court judges who will.
It is important to understand that an individual can only give up to $2,600 to any
candidate and these donations are closely regulated by the Federal Elections Commissions.
(Huskerson) But now any corporation or individual can donated as much as they want to any
Super PAC that supports their candidate of choice. This fact alone does not seem very

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have chan

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a deal

Griffin Oswald
November 2016
UWRT 1103


significant, until you look at the size of the donations. Thomas Steyer gave a donation of

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$66,294,744 to a Super PAC supporting Hillary Clinton, and Sheldon Adelson and his wife gave
over $42,700,000 to a Super PAC supporting Donald Trump and these are only two examples

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out of hundreds. (Open Secrets) Over 1.5 billion dollars has been raised by Super PACs this

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year alone, and only 1% of individual donors have contributed over 25% of all money raised.
(Open Secrets) This brings me to the next aspect of my interactive exhibit. The exhibit looks like

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a normal ballot box on the outside, with the addition of flashy colors and graphics to attract
people to it. But once opened the audience will see the ballot box it is filled with money and the
names of the biggest donors in this recent election instead of normal votes. It will also contain
information about Super PACs and Citizens United to better inform voters on this issue. By
actually seeing this issue three dimensionally voters will be able to better understand why there
needs to be change.
Another problem with Super PACs is elected officials are more obligated to listen to
their biggest donors that helped get them elected than the citizens they are supposed to

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lawmaker
donors ins

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represent.. (Terkel) Another issue with this is how similar it is to the robber baron era (or
gilded age politics) in America during the early 1900s. During the robber baron era campaign
donations were completely unregulated and politicians would give their biggest donors seats in
their cabinet or other positions of power. When the upper class obtained positions of power
because of the money they were donating, middle and lower class voters were ignored and

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suppressed. (Loomis) One sign of this becoming a real issue in modern times is Donald Trumps

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proposed cabinet members, many of which are billionaire CEOs with very little political

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Griffin Oswald
November 2016
UWRT 1103


backgrounds. (Terkel) By including this information into the ballot box exhibit, voters will be
able to see how quickly America is reverting back to one of the most corrupt times in our

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executive

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history. The inclusion of this idea in the exhibit will make lower and middle class voters want to
enact change. Adding this information to the ballot box also shows how serious this problem
could become if nothing is done to fix it.
A lot of thought and effort has already been put forth to try and correct the problems

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created by the Citizens United decision. The f quickest way to fix the issue is for the supreme
court to completely overturn the decisions made in the case, and with one new justice already
appointed by Obama and at least two more seats opening up soon, this may be a possible
solution. What is even more probable is fixing campaign reform on a state by state level first,

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similar to gay marriage legalization, marijuana legalization, and gun control. Campaign reform
has happened in Maine, Connecticut, Arizona, Seattle, and New York City by citizens voting on
smaller bills proposed by lobbyist. The federal government is much more likely to listen to

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individual states if this trend keeps occurring, and with both of the main candidates in this

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presidential election being pro-campaign reform this may be a very likely solution to a very

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large problem. (Cole) This is why I have made American voters my intended audience. Change

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in a democracy starts with the people, and if my interactive exhibit can educate voters and
raise enough interest this corruption could be reversed quite quickly. It is my hope that this
ballot box can expose voters to this problem and demonstrated that as long as the Citizens
United decision and Super PACs exist, you do not have a voice.

Griffin Oswald
November 2016
UWRT 1103





WORK CITED:

Huskerson, Tom. 60% Of Americans Don't Understand What Super PACs Are . IVNus, Ivn.us,
14 Feb. 2014, ivn.us/2014/02/14/60-americans-say-dont-understand-super-pacs/.

Dunbar, John. "The 'Citizens United' Decision and Why It Matters." Center for Public Integrity.
N.p., 14 Mar. 2016. Web. 29 Sept. 2016.
<https://www.publicintegrity.org/2012/10/18/11527/citizens-united-decision-and-why-itmatters>.

Open Secrets . The Center for Responsive Politics. Opensecrets RSS, 1 Feb. 2016,
www.opensecrets.org/outsidespending/summ.php?disp=d.

Open Secrets . The Center for Responsive Politics. Opensecrets RSS, 1 Jan. 2016,
www.opensecrets.org/outsidespending/donor_stats.php?cycle=2016&type=i.

Terkel, Amanda. Lawmakers More Likely To Meet With Campaign Donors Than Constituents,
New Study Finds. The Huffington Post, TheHuffingtonPost.com, 5 Nov. 2014,
www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/03/11/campaign-donations-access_n_4941357.html.

Terkel, Amanda. "Donald Trumps Proposed Cabinet Would Bring Some Fringe Figures In From
The Cold." Donald Trumps Proposed Cabinet Would Bring Some Fringe Figures In From The
Cold. N.p., 11 Nov. 2016. Web. 14 Nov. 2016. <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/donaldtrump-administration-cabinet_us_58249c70e4b01019814da7f9>.

Loomis / AlterNet, Erik. "8 Ways America's Headed Back to the Robber-Baron Era." Alternet.
N.p., 2 July 2012. Web. 29 Sept. 2016.
<http://www.alternet.org/story/156111/8_ways_america%27s_headed_back_to_the_robberbaron_era/>.

Cole, David. "How to Reverse Citizens United." The Atlantic. Atlantic Media Company, 1 Apr.
2016. Web. 04 Oct. 2016. <http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2016/04/how-toreverse-citizens-united/471504/>.

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Griffin Oswald
November 2016
UWRT 1103



Wertheimer, Fred. "Super PACs a Disaster for Democracy." CNN. Cable News Network, 15 Feb.
2015. Web. 01 Oct. 2016. <http://www.cnn.com/2012/02/15/opinion/wertheimer-superpacs/index.html>. .

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Griffin Oswald

12/6/16 7:40:00 AM

With all my research and the fact that so few of the American public know about the
corruption caused by Super PACs I have decided to create an interactive piece to represent this
problem to the voting public. I have constructed a fake ballot box that will be placed outside
voting centers. These ballot boxes will be duplicated and will be displayed at polling centers all
over the United States. This is a good location to run this interactive exhibit since voters are the
ones who can make a difference, and more knowledge about the issue of campaign donations
will allow voters to make a more informed decision about who they elect, as certain candidates
are more likely to try and overturn citizens united or appoint judges who will. The ballot box
will look like a normal ballot box on the outside, but will have flashy colors and graphics to
attract people to it. But once you open up the ballot box it is filled with money and the names
of the biggest donors in this recent election instead of normal votes. It will also contain
information about Super PACs and Citizens United to better inform voters on this issue. The
purpose of this piece is to expose voters to this problem and to demonstrated that as long as
the Citizens United decision and Super PACs exist you do not have a voice.