It's beginning to feel a lot like AD 193 again. That year the rich bargained in plain sight to buy the job of Roman emperor. An auction was held before the cronies who controlled it—the Praetorian Guard. Senator Titus Flavius Sulpicianus squared off against Senator Didius Julianus who won with a bid worth 10 horses per guard. Rome never quite recovered its dignity.

Can America? Elections in the United States today can seem like auctions thanks to decisions like the 2010 Supreme Court ruling in Citizen's United v. Federal Election Commission. Overruling previous precedent, that 2010 decision rejected the notion that the government had a compelling interest in limiting the "corrosive and distorting effects of immense aggregations of wealth."

Those effects are now on graphic display. Outsider spending on congressional candidates went from around $204 million in 201o to $4 billion today. Spending on the 2024 presidential election has been estimated to be nearly $16 billion, tripling in today's dollars spending in 2000.

Have you ever wondered why contemporary political dialogue focuses mostly on things immensely wealthy individuals........

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