A very, very tiny number of wealthy Americans are playing an ever-increasing role in financing our politics.

It appears that 1/10th of 1 percent of Americans are spending more on political campaigns than 75 percent of the entire population. The Sunlight Foundation recently issued a report showing that 1 in 10,000 givers ponied up one quarter of all contributions. Most people know that the 1 percent of Americans – 1 in a 100 – control three quarters of U.S. wealth and income. But when it comes to politics, few realize that the big spenders in politics are still fewer – only 1 in 10,000. These Rothschilds of rubles, these monsters of moolah – each a Croesus of cash – are a cancer on democracy.

Ever since John Kennedy taught Richard Nixon that TV elects presidents, that great eye in the sky has been demanding (and receiving) more and more money. It has reached the stage where it pre-empts all other means of campaigning. Door-to-door is not only passe?, but printed advertising, direct mail and word of mouth have all been shunted to the caboose of the political campaign train. Therefore, since TV makes or breaks elections, and money purchases TV, the connection between the 1 in a 1,000 of these exceedingly generous givers and those who write laws is starkly clear. And it’s getting worse. These dollars have more than quadrupled in the last 20 years, and the upward trend shows no sign of slacking.

The danger for America is the tumor this money creates in Washington – what kind of laws gets written. The Sunlight report pointed out that these patriots are overwhelmingly “corporate executives, investors, lobbyists and lawyers.” For good measure, it added that “a good number appear to be highly ideological” – in other words, they have strong political beliefs. No Inspector Poirot is needed to see that the interests being benefited with their cash clout are rarely sympathetic to the average American.

These generous folks may want peace, they may want clean air, they may support Head Start or Planned Parenthood, they may want to give immigrants a chance at citizenship, but it’s far more likely that the overarching concern of these champions of civic concern is a carefully calibrated campaign to maintain and protect wealth in one form or another. For these givers, charity begins at home.

And, what’s worse, the Supreme Court decision to give First Amendment protection to corporations is another whole infection in this already sick political process. The power of individual wealth in the election process is now supercharged with corporate dollars – a potential that awes. Corporate money will fertilize such human goals as anti-labor, subsidized foreign trading and freedom from industrial taxes. Added to the rat-like privileges of wealth (such as abolishing estate tax or tax exemptions for second and third homes), the influence of such money augurs ill for American dreams.

America is hell bent for the return of Daddy Warbucks and Horatio Alger.

Romney’s spending in Florida to win a party caucus is a case in point. Twelve million dollars for about the same number of votes that made Mr. Brennan mayor of Portland – just to make him eligible to be a party candidate. You could take every Republican in Florida to a good Miami dinner for that much money.

Those with a strong stomach are invited to view Donald Trump and Mr., Romney exchanging high fives.

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Rodney Quinn, a retired U.S. Air Force lieutenant colonel and former university history and government instructor, lives in Westbrook. He can be reached at rquinn@maine.rr.com.

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