What comes to mind when considering the act of corruption? Like many people, a myriad of negative actions and ideas probably come to mind. Possibilities that may come to mind are things like corruption, deception, fraud, schemes, and other illicit activities or transactions. This is where an important question arises. What, then, is the difference between corruption and corporate political campaign financing? It is clear that the answer oscillates between nothing and very little. In today's political world, democracy is for sale. To begin, let's take a look at what corporate political campaign financing actually represents. This type of financing is, as the name suggests, money provided to a campaign by a company with the expectation that the additional money will help the candidate win. While this may seem like a simple and benign transaction, it is not all that simple and reckless. Financing of this caliber is a classic example of one hand washing the other; there is absolutely no reason to believe that these huge multinationals receive nothing in return for the vast sums of money they donate. You might view these corporate “donations” more as an investment than a contribution since they send money to someone else in the hope of receiving benefits in return. The official definition of bribery is as follows: “The act of accepting or offering something of value, such as money, in exchange for a specific action or influence on a government official.” Now, returning to the first question, what is the difference between corruption and corporate political campaign spending? The answer, at this point, should appear blatantly obvious; Nothing. Corruption is an extremely serious crime... middle of paper... they are corrupt and immoral, parts of these laws have recently been returned to the ever powerful Supreme Court for re-evaluation. If the matter has made it all the way to America's highest courts, then it is easy to see that there is something wrong with this process. This act of corruption, which is now considered perfectly acceptable in American politics, is actually undemocratic. Most Americans have an extreme fear of things like communism and dictatorships, as evident with the Red Scare in relatively recent years. Capitalism and democracy are two concepts very close to the average American citizen, so why throw them away by allowing corporations to spend on political campaigns? The American people must take the votes of our politicians out of the market, remove the price tag from our freedom, and eradicate the selling of democracy in the land of the free..