Puerto Vallarta, Mexico - On January 19, Democrats Abroad held their second free public forum in the Red Room at Act II. This forum discussed the growing issue of unlimited and unidentified money being spent on political campaigns in the United States.

The 'Money in Politics' forum began with an overview by the Chair of the Costa Banderas Chapter of Democrats Abroad Mexico, Tobe Jensen, who gave a brief summary of the changes that have occurred in the last 50 years regarding campaign funding. She began by saying, "Most of us in this room have lived through a startling political reversal of public policy from the social-democratic programs of FDR, JFK, and LBJ like the GI Bill, Social Security, Medicare, Civil Rights and Voting Rights acts to the great unraveling of these policies that protect the 99%. We have shifted from policies geared to greater empowerment and enfranchisement of the many to policies that benefit a limited few as our national focus. We are here today to contend that political funding and increasing income inequality are critical factors in that unraveling."

She went on to present that more than half of 2016 Presidential contributions are coming from fewer than 200 families and much of that money is going into Super Pacs that have grown dramatically since the 2010 Supreme Court decision of Citizens United vs. FCC. These Super Pacs, unencumbered by spending limits, do not need to reveal their donors. They comprise 96% of outside spending, as opposed to candidate and party spending, and have rapidly increased to ten times greater this year than that in 2010. As a result, great wealth translates into political power which then allows the wealthy and corporations to generate policies which favor them, thus creating a vicious circle of wealth and power.

Jerry Kroth, Professor Emeritus of psychology at Santa Clara University, then spoke on the rise of plutocracy, which has disenfranchised most Americans from influencing policy, and its intersection with politicians. He claimed that the average wealth of a current Senator, for instance, would put them in the top 1% of people in the country in terms of wealth. As a result, to approve any policy, it first must be supported by the richest of Americans.

Paul Crist, local business owner and former Senate staffer, then went on to describe the political and legal implications and controversy regarding recent Supreme Court decisions which have reversed over 100 years of previous campaign finance law, and opened the gates to an avalanche of secret cash into campaigns, not just on the federal level but for state offices as well.

Finally, John Wilson-Bugbee described various efforts to stem the effects of unidentified and unlimited funding of campaigns. He suggested joining forces with the League of Women Voters or Common Cause for guidance since they have provided a lot of leadership on this issue. He said the process would be a long one to stem the political power of the plutocracy but there were some hopeful signs. He suggested the easiest one would be to require all recipients of government contracts to be identified as donors to campaigns. Right now, those who are seeking government contracts do not have to do so and that leads to outright corruption. He also cited a recent Washington State directive to limit campaign funding, which if not passed by the legislature this next year, would go directly to the voters and could create a precedent other states could follow.

The next forum is scheduled for February 9th at Act II Entertainment from 2-4 pm, and it will discuss immigration issues for ex-pats who come to Mexico to live and work from the U.S. as well as U.S. immigration policy for Mexicans and Central and South Americans immigrating to the U.S.