Biden has won – but his campaign revealed the real problem with corporate donations in politics

The main reason Republicans keep ahold of power in the US isn’t actually money – it’s disenfranchisement

Progressive leaders like Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren have been arguing for years that corporate money undermines the electoral process and makes it difficult to push through progressive priorities on healthcare, labour or taxation.

This year, though, progressives and Democrats have created small-donor juggernauts that seem able to match and even exceed corporate donations. 

In the primaries, Sanders refused to take money from corporate and wealthy donors, and still managed to raise $34.5m (£26.2m) in the fourth quarter alone, putting him $10m ahead of Joe Biden and Pete Buttigieg, who both held high-end fundraisers. Similarly, in the general election, Biden raised huge amounts of money from small donors – $80m in May with an average donation of $30, for example. Overall, Biden solidly outraised Trump.

Small donors also powered huge fundraising totals in many Senate races. Democratic Senate candidate Jon Ossoff raised $21.3m in July, August and September from 600,000 donors whose average contribution stood at $35. Ossof’s rival, David Perdue, raised only about $5.6m in the same period.

With candidates raising so much money from small donors in national and state races, it’s difficult to argue that corporate interests are outspending average voters, or buying elections. Corporations certainly have undue influence in many regards, and for that matter, most progressives would consider both Biden and Ossoff too corporate-friendly. But progressives and Democrats have tapped into an internet-powered small-donor money machine that can match and even bury corporate giving.

Yet, despite this achievement, Democrats in this election struggled to break the conservative hammerlock on power which stymies progressive change. With losses in key Senate races putting Democratic control of the chamber in jeopardy, Biden’s promises to the left – including a $15 minimum wage, outlawing right-to-work laws, lowering the age for Medicare coverage, and more – may be impossible.

Democrats had enough cash. And they had a popular mandate. Biden underperformed polls that put him 8 points ahead, but it looks like he will still win the popular vote by at least 2 to 3 points. He has already gained more votes than any candidate in American history and that will be extended once every ballot is counted. Democrats have won more votes than Republicans in seven of the last eight elections, going back to 1992.  

It’s clear that Democrats are more popular than Republicans in the United States. Yet, Donald Trump won the electoral college in 2016, and almost did the same in 2020, because key states like Pennsylvania and Wisconsin are more conservative than the country as a whole.

In the same vein, the Senate remains a toss-up for Republican control because tiny rural states that lean Republican, like Wyoming (population 580,000) and South Dakota (population 885,000) get as many Senators as Democratic states like California (population 40 million) and more Senators than Democratic-leaning Washington DC, which is allowed no representatives.

Republicans have also been doubling down on policies of voter suppression. In Florida, the GOP effectively instituted a poll tax this year to disenfranchise former prisoners, a majority of whom are black – thanks to a state prison system where black people are disproportionately jailed – and therefore statistically more likely to vote Democratic. And Republican-controlled legislatures in North Carolina, Wisconsin, and other states have drawn up aggressive gerrymanders, creating house district maps that shut Democrats out of power even when they overwhelmingly win the popular vote.

These structural restrictions on voting rights thwart progressive goals on every level, in ways large and small. The disproportionate power of conservatives in the Senate will likely make it difficult for Biden to pass progressive legislation . And Democratic candidates are reluctant to push more leftist policies because of the electoral advantage of conservatives. 

Biden made a big deal in the general election of repudiating a fracking ban. He did it because his surest path to an electoral college victory was winning Pennsylvania, a relatively conservative state where fracking is popular.

Progressives in general strongly support expanding and protecting the franchise; Warren and Sanders both had strong voting rights plans in the primary. But there is an issue of emphasis. For historical reasons, left leaders often focus on economic issues first, and think about voting rights as important, but less structurally determinative. It’s more and more clear, however, that the main bulwark of reactionary power in the United States is not money, but disenfranchisement. 

Capitalism relies on authoritarianism, even more than vice versa. If we want a more equitable economy, we need to fight for democracy.