There’s
a big difference between buying ads to explain your political positions and
buying elections. To help you understand
this, let me explain how elections are actually bought. It's by literally
bribing voters to vote for you.
I'll start with this historical
example. Originally, Senators were chosen by state legislators. In 1899,
William A. Clark, a millionaire "Copper King," bribed the Montana
state legislature to elect him as US Senator. That's buying an election. It's
also a big part of why voters, rather than legislatures, select Senators.
The traditional Chicago election
includes a lot of "walking around money," which is used to bribe
voters directly or to bribe people who have a lot of influence on voters. The
classical direct vote buying method was chain voting. The man with the money
hands the voter a marked ballot. The voter goes into the polling place, gets an
unmarked ballot and puts the marked ballot in the voting box. Outside the
polling place the voter hands the man with the money an unmarked ballot and
gets paid.
What
Sheldon Adelson does is the same thing George Soros, Tom Steyer or the AFLCIO
does. They buy political ads, pay for political pamphlets and pay staffers to
make phone calls and walk door to door to get out the vote. All of this is free
speech, whether you agree with the message or not. If you don't like it, back
the Democrat's attempt to amend the Bill of Rights.