Whats more important, foreign money or foreign voters?

[kiryan]

As much as Democrats complain about foreign money in politics, its interesting they don't seem to care at all about non US citizens / illegals actually voting in elections.

So whats worse, foreign money in our elections, or foreign voters?

http://thehill.com/homenews/house/15307 ... for-states

GOP says 5,000 non-citizens voting in Colorado a 'wake-up call' for states

Of those non-citizen registered voters, nearly 5,000 took part in the 2010 general election in which Democratic Sen. Michael Bennet narrowly defeated Republican John Buck.

(Buck lost by about 15,000 votes out of 1.5 million)

[Sarvis]

Money.

[kiryan]

right... im not surprised you think that way since you think conservatives are too stupid to intelligently vote and just vote whatever fox tells them too.

Never mind the reality that votes actually count while money can only influence.

[Teflor Lyorian]

Conservatives vote intelligently to further their values. You may not find intelligence in their values, but they do vote in Republicans they actually will end up liking later.

[Sarvis]

right... im not surprised you think that way since you think conservatives are too stupid to intelligently vote and just vote whatever fox tells them too.

Never mind the reality that votes actually count while money can only influence.

Only influence millions of people, including the illegal voters themselves. That far outweighs 5,000 single votes. You're talking about less than 1% of the total vote.

Worse yet, when wealthy people make large donations it creates a situation where the politician may feel some obligation to pass policies on behalf of the donor. This circumvents the voting process, with any candidate beholden to donor interests regardless of what the voting public thinks is in their best interests. How often do you complain about union money going to politicians? Maybe no one VOTING wants union power increased, but if a candidate gets enough money from unions they are likely to increase union power anyway.

So yes, money is worse than votes.

Frankly I'm not really sure illegals shouldn't have a voice anyway, they are living here after all.

[kiryan]

I'm talking specifically about FOREIGN money.

Also, I'd like to know what your sliding scale is on money vs vote. Is $10 in foreign money a bigger problem than 1 counted foreign vote? Is it $50 or $1,000?

[Sarvis]

I'm talking specifically about FOREIGN money.

Also, I'd like to know what your sliding scale is on money vs vote. Is $10 in foreign money a bigger problem than 1 counted foreign vote? Is it $50 or $1,000?

Foreign money is worse, since we are then beholden to another country's interests. And to keep the comparison even, I'll say that $5,000 is worse than 5,000 votes. Though I'm sure an ad agency could calculate the exact number of votes that should be swayed per dollar.

[kiryan]

Hmm... interesting... so you're saying that foreign voters are less beholden to their country of origin's interests than money which would definitely represent a pro foreigner agenda.

I could maybe see that, a foreigner voting would be voting presumably on issues related to their living in the US rather than issues back at home... however can't you make the same argument with foreign business (really that is what we are talking about when we talk about foreign money in our elections). Foreign companies injecting money to affect the business climate they are doing business in.