Name: Nguyen Thi Thanh TuyenClass: NVA001-03

Student ID: 1557010251

Week: 11

Group: Pikachu

Essay: The role of money and political elites in USA presidential

election.
As we can see the unprecedented consequence of the 2016 US
presidential election, although the majority of citizens in this country
voted for Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump still be a winner notwithstanding
Donald Trump was the victory. So this meant the right to choose president
not totally belong to American citizens. It seemed that all of the people
was stunned by this results because it did not reach their expectation. The
role of running for president did not base on citizensvotes, however,
mostly depended on money and political elites in the USA.
The first thing affecting the election was money. There is no seperating
money from politics. Each campaign every two years needed a vast
amount of money and especially this year was the most expensive in
history. Recent research revealed that the amount raised by candidates
was $1,310 billion and the amout raised by super PACs is $549 million. For
more information, Hillary Clinton committee money was $497,808,791
and Donald Trump committee money was $247,541,449. (Presidential
Race article, par 2)1.
The results of the presidential election were not only powerful impacted
by money but also political elites. The candidates themselves could not
join the electoral race, behind them was a group of wealthy, intelligent
and powerful people who were willing to vote for them in any
circumstances. In other word, we call those people political elites. Due
to the system of electing president bases on the vote of electoral college.
And the electoral college is based on a winner-all-take system, which
means the winner of the majority of votes in each state gets all of that
states electoral votes. At the end of the election day, Hillary Clinton lost
the president position as results of getting less electoral votes from
Electoral College than Donald Trump, in spite of the fact that she had
more popular votes than him.(Presidential Results, article par 1)2.
Money and political elites have played an import role in any electoral race,
especially the 2016 US presidential election. These two elements certainly
made some negative effects on the final consequece Americas society.
The first effect was people believed that money run and decided the
election. The candidates need money to run their campaigns, in this case
money just a kind of support. But in 2016, we could not underestimate the
importance of money in the political process, the money won the election.
If the candidates who received the donation from the rich became the
winner they would be served for the requirements of the rich, not for the
working class anymore. So the US governments motto should be updated

Name: Nguyen Thi Thanh TuyenClass: NVA001-03

Student ID: 1557010251
Week: 11

Group: Pikachu

to read ...of the rich, by the rich, and for the rich.3 (John W. Whitehead,
par 1).
The second effect was the majority of citizens lost their trust to the US
government. the way of electing depending on political and rich class
does not match the hope of working class. The exact example is that while
citizens vote for Hillary Clinton, political elites vote for Donald Trump. The
structure of the electoral college allowed that popular vote of over 700
thousand people turned out rate of about 1.5 million of people be ignored
and handed the presidency to Donald Trump.4 Their votes was absolutely
invaluable so how can they confidently believe in the government which
showed complete disregard for their hope. Eventually, the power and
influence still belong to the wealthy.
To sum up, it is no doubt that political system of the US was affected by
money and political elites and resulting in some drawbacks. But whoever
will be the president we all want he or she will devote their willingness for
America and American.
-------------------------------------------References:
1

2016 Presidential Race,no author, no date,29 November 2016

<https://opensecrets.org/pres16>
2,4

Presidential Result, no author, no date, 29 November 2016,

<http://edition.cnn.com/election/results/president>
3

Whitehead J.W, Government of the Rich, by the Rich and for the Rich: Its
Time for Militant Nonviolent Resistance,no date, 29 November 2016,
<http://www.huffingtonpost.com/john-w-whitehead/government-of-the-richby_b_4588490.html>