And it wasn't just something we realised lately. Even Athen democracy rejected the idea of elections, mainly because rich can just back the candidate they like.

Like every political cycle, huge sums of donation are made by the rich to political parties. I am not just saying America here, it's everywhere. In plenty of parts of the world, majority donations are made by a few, not the masses, and that's kinda the thing, most people don't have enough cash on hand to even support political parties.

Plenty of people across the world still think of donating money to political parties as some vanity expense, while your donation is very much tied to how favorably the party will treat you. Yes there's voting, but money is equally important to them, if not more, for the political campaigns. Yeah the system sucks, but it sucks much much more when millions of people don't even have the money to donate in politics, thus reducing their voice compared to those who spend money here.

Yeah it's cynical but that does happen. People just don't need a living income. To get a decent voice , you need money for political expenses, and you only get that money when you have decent savings for more important stuff like health emergencies and retirement investment.

Yes, votes matter too. It's not that people without money are totally fucked, but their voice isn't as strong as those who donate money.