They say money talks, but all mine ever says is goodbye!

Henry H. Bucher, Jr.

My op-ed title has been attributed to many ‘authors’ and rings true with so many people. What should upset more people is that our media, as our 2024 elections draw closer, imply that the candidates with the most money are more likely to win! This helps raise money, but money should not play such a big role in a democracy. Perhaps some researcher has studied past elections in the USA and correlates how many times the amount spent on election ads has brought victory to the one who spent the most. We often hear: “It is NOT about the money” when it really is about the money.

Many of my emails related to coming elections are mostly about money. Money is necessary for all sorts of advertising: media, signs, cost of gatherings where candidates speak, and the list continues. There are some elections where the candidate who spends the most money loses. I don’t know if there has been a serious study of the impact of money in US elections over the decades. We do have a Federal Election Commission (FEC)—an independent agency with the task of making sure that our financing of campaigns follow the law. The FEC has jurisdiction over the election of our president and vice president, and the U.S. Senate and House.

Protecting the integrity of our elections is a formidable task with all the possibilities of “dark money” and the growing impact of social media. I am amazed daily how emails pour in and use the same fact to raise alarms that without my donation the other side will win the 2024 elections. Part of this is due to the long-standing “upside down” policies of our past president. Even as he is indicted four times, he sees this as a booster to his ratings. Indeed, his ratings have risen in some situations; but I have to wonder if some of the rise is due to Democrats who see Donald Trump’s possibly being the 2024 Republican rival as the best candidate that Democrats could want—the easiest to defeat! On the same day that former president Trump surrendered to the Fulton county legal system in Georgia, tee shirts became available with his “mug shot” and the statement “NEVER SURRENDER.” How much money is raised from the shirts is key for his legal defense.

I am not suggesting that money is a negative force in life, and it is certainly necessary for life itself. Some billionaires are generous in giving to causes that benefit the needs of people and institutions. Indeed, the key is in seeing the role that money plays in our lives and whether it encourages good or evil! Money always talks, but what it says depends on the spender’s integrity. *

*Hardly a new idea. Biblical sources stress that “the love of money is the root of all evil.” (First Timothy 6:10).