American politics has long had too many lobbyists and too much money fueling campaigns. But Donald Trump’s administration breaks records. The total net worth of billionaires involved with it amounts to over $382 billion, which is more than the GDP of 172 different countries.

Today on The Metro, we discussed how wealthy individuals are now influencing our politics, and how much of a change that is from past administrations.

Guests:

• Graeme Robertson – Professor of political science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and director of the Center for Slavic, Eurasian and East European Studies. His work focuses on political protest and regime support in authoritarian regimes.
• Bilal Baydoun – Director of Democratic Institutions at Roosevelt Forward, an advocacy affiliate of the Roosevelt Institute, a progressive think tank. 

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We also asked listeners:

“Should the government be run like a business?”

Christian in Grosse Pointe Park said: “I don’t think it’s black and white. I think we need to look at each individual situation and realize if we make it primarily like that we’re going to be opposing each other as opposed to working together to find tenable solutions to issues.”

Use the media player above to hear the full conversation.

Tomorrow’s question: Should the U.S. government get rid of diversity, equity and inclusion? 

Join the conversation by calling 313-577-1019 or leaving us an Open Mic message on the WDET app. 

More stories from The Metro on Jan. 28, 2024:

• Black Bottom Archives is a community archive that’s committed to preserving Black Detroit stories, and the organization is celebrating its 10th year. 

• Being from Detroit has created a strong foundation for Emmy-award winning journalist and Fresh Air co-host Tonya Mosley. She joined the show to talk about her hometown and career.

• Detroit’s Adopt-A-Park program is asking groups like block clubs, churches, and nonprofits to become stewards of a city park. Executive Director of the Detroit Parks Coalition Sigal Hemy joined the show to discuss the magic of Detroit’s parks and what it means to adopt one.

Listen to The Metro weekdays from 10 a.m. to noon ET on 101.9 FM and streaming on-demand.

Money in politics has always been a crack in the foundation of our democracy. Citizens United, a Supreme Court ruling that overturned campaign finance laws by granting free speech rights to corporations, deepened that crack. 

But where does all that money come from? Good luck finding out. The campaign finance system we have in the U.S. is high on donations and low on accountability. In the most recent election, donations to presidential Super PAC’s surpassed $1 billion. 

Subscribe to The Metro on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, NPR.org or wherever you get your podcasts.

Fifteen years after the landmark Supreme Court decision, we’re taking a close look at how Citizens United has changed American politics and asking where do we go from here? Is campaign finance reform on the horizon, or is it just a pipe dream? 

Daniel Weiner, director of elections and government programs at the Brennan Center for Justice, joined The Metro on Wednesday to help explain how dark money came to be so ingrained in our politics. 

“Dark money actually comes because the Supreme Court and the lower courts seem to have sort of assumed that all this money that they were allowing to be spent would be transparent, that the sources would be disclosed,” Weiner said. “But it turns out that at the federal level and in many states — including Michigan — the laws and rules that require disclosure really just didn’t contemplate this. They didn’t expect to have corporations spending unlimited amounts of money on politics, and they didn’t apply disclosure rules to those sorts of entities.”

The Citizen United ruling opened the door for dark money and mega donor influence in Washington. But its impact hits much closer to home, said Bridge Michigan reporter Simon Schuster, who also joined the conversation.

Schuster says the Michigan Supreme Court race saw millions of dollars in dark money donations.  

“In the Supreme Court races, the candidates generally receive substantially less funding than we see in the house,” Schuster said. “And as a result, the outside funding that we see for these campaigns becomes that much more potent, especially in the Supreme Court race this year.”

We also asked our listeners:

“Is there too much money in politics?”

Elisa in Grosse Pointe Park said: “The one thing that just really struck me this morning was the idea of campaign donations, political donations, and how a donation is usually seen as like a gift, like freely given, and how it’s such a different, a different case in politics. And you know, it’s really more like payment for services expected or services rendered.”

Use the media player above to listen to the full conversation, plus other stories from “The Metro.”

More headlines from The Metro on Jan. 22, 2024: 

• On Sunday, a ceasefire between Hamas and Israel began, leading to Israel’s release of around 90 Palestinian prisoners and detainees and Hamas’ freeing of three Israeli hostages. Metro producer Sam Corey sat down with Senior Director for the Jewish Federation of Detroit David Kurzmann to discuss how Jews in metro Detroit are reacting to the news. 
• Community Behavioral Health Administrator for Wayne County Tara King and Research Assistant and Project Coordinator at Wayne State University’s Center for Behavioral Health and Justice Alexandria Hughes joined the show to talk more about their collaborative project to place vending machines containing life-saving naloxone across Wayne County.
• If you’re looking to find some interesting reads, Wayne State University Press might be a place to start. Since 1941 the University Press has published over 2,000 titles that explore a number of topics. Senior Director of the Wayne State University Press Stephanie Williams joined The Metro to give us a sample of its offerings.

You can join the conversation on “The Metro” by calling 313-577-1019 or leaving us an Open Mic message on the WDET app.

Listen to The Metro weekdays from 10 a.m. to noon ET on 101.9 FM and streaming on-demand.