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Republican outside groups are outspending democrats by eight to one in the 2010 election cycle.  Citizens United, the court case allowing unlimited (and anonymous) corporate political spending (as if spending were speech!), is benefiting the republicans. The republican party advocates policies that are more in the financial interest of the wealthy (e.g., cutting entitlements and extending the Bush tax cuts for those over $200,000). In my view, the case opens up the dichotomy between a plutocracy (rule by wealth) and a representative democracy (rule by the people through their representatives). Although the latter is not perfect (esp when most of the people are idiots), it is better than rule by the moneyed interests (i.e., the status quo).  It is ironic that after electing real change, the forces of the status quo would gain the upper hand. Since the vast majority of American voters are not wealthy, the question is perhaps whether we can be effectively manipulated by political ads into voting for the interests of the wealthy. For example, one outside group had an ad complaining about the U.S. government’s debt and urging less spending on entitlements.  No mention is made of the roughly $1 trillion spent on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.  As another example, extending the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy is put in terms of the latter using the savings to hire workers, even though studies show that such tax savings are typically saved. An educated electorate seems to me the best means of resisting such manipulation. Essentially, the distinction can be said to be between the vested interests of the status quo and those of real change.  Too much power going to the wealthy can stultify the political system, such that we do not adapt.  An organism that does not adapt to a changing environment does not tend to survive.