Trump’s post-conviction windfall shows democracy is increasingly a pay-to-play game

Donald Trump watches a UFC welterweight bout on June 1, 2024, in Newark, N.J.& (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II) by Daniel Drache, York University, Canada and Marc D. Froese, Burman University In the hours immediately following Donald Trump’s recent hush-money conviction in a Manhattan courtroom, his presidential campaign raked in US$53 million from small donors. Why are regular people without deep pockets throwing so much money at a convicted felon? In the United States today, as in many other countries with a populism problem, money is both the cause and consequence of broken political systems. Modern democracy has a money problem everywhere. As democracy becomes a pay-to-play game, trust in the system breaks down and political tribalism becomes the only way to win. We throw money at our candidates because cold cash is the only form of speech that makes a difference. But even in places where democracy has not yet fallen off a cliff, all-powerful billionaires, broken political parties and angry voters are moving into destructive alignment. As pessimism and anger pile up across the globe, we must brace for far-reaching consequences. The billionaires’ playbook Billionaires from Hyderabad to Houston demand three things from their national governments: low taxes to...