Big donors have always had outsize influence on American politics, but thanks to the Supreme Court, in the last 14 years they have become kingmakers. Justices who came up in the Federalist Society and conquered the Supreme Court in the 21st century opened the floodgates with the 2010 Citizens United ruling. Five Republican-appointed justices ruled that corporations enjoy freedom of speech and that money is a form of speech, and therefore no limit could be imposed on campaign donations. The four Democrat-appointed justices dissented.
A few days before the ruling, President Barack Obama warned in his State of the Union address that the Federalist justices had opened up a Pandora's box. He was criticized by the right for damaging the dignity and independence of the judiciary. Very soon it turned out he had been right. According to a University of Chicago study, $144 million were spent by both Democrats and Republicans in the 2008 presidential election. In the first presidential election after the ruling, in 2012, the combined amount leaped to $1 billion. In the 2020 presidential election, it was $14.4 billion.
this is interesting from the same article maybe controlling the WH and SCOTUS picks are a big deal?
You have a point you do see some political pundits/commentary are much more understanding of Russian invading Ukraine because they were going to become nato member.
