Spending in the 2012 presidential election is expected to top $11 billion—more than twice the 2008 total. The Supreme Court’s Citizens United ruling has taken American electoral politics back six decades, to a time when corporations, trade groups and unions were allowed to spend unlimited money on political campaigns.

A reporter for Mother Jones magazine, Andy Kroll, far right (pictured next to “Democracy Now!” correspondent Juan Gonzalez), discusses the history of both legal and illegal attempts to win elections and the fully privately funded presidential election that will occur in November.

— Posted by Alexander Reed Kelly.

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