Reflection Week 3

This week I looked at the numbers regarding how groups of Americans view the political process and campaign finance. Luckily, the New York Times created a graphic with data from CBS News Polls to explain how American adults view this complex and significant topic. By looking at the numbers, I tried figuring out if the country was split on campaign finance reform based on their political leanings or if this issue is equally important to the average American, regardless of their ideologies. According to the poll, 90% of Democrats and 80% of Republicans believe money has too much of an influence in the political process and within government. 58% of Americans believe both parties benefit from money in politics, while 54% of Americans think unlimited campaign spending is not free speech. Independents, I would argue, are leading the reform for campaign finance as 59% of them believe in quid pro quo corruption (most of the time) and 53% of them support a complete reconstruction of political funding. A surprising statistic is that 66% of American adults that make over $100K a year also believe candidates promote policies (most of the time) that are related to their donors.