Billionaires: Have Americans’ Views Changed? | RealClearPolitics
Although most Americans have no problem with the likes of Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk financing such pursuits as engaging their own personal space race, by more than a 3-1 margin U.S. voters think billionaires should have their wings clipped when it comes to exerting outsized influence over U.S. political campaigns.
Asked in the most recent in-depth survey by RealClear Public Opinion Research whether billionaires should be allowed to contribute unlimited amounts of political money, 66% of respondents said no, while only 21% said yes (with the rest undecided). Congress enacted just such a prohibition 20 years ago in the bipartisan McCain-Feingold campaign law. But in the ensuing two decades those reforms were eroded by a series of unpopular U.S. Supreme Court decisions and by the willingness of leaders in both major political parties to accept vast sums of political dark money even while decrying its impact.