The White House is Not For Sale
America’s most powerful industries spent a record amount of money to purchase the White House and install an empty suit that would take orders directly from them. Didn’t work.
Sure, the Kochs and Adelsons and Wall Street barons can pump three times as much money into the next election. Ten times as much. But what good will it do? There’s only X number of TV channels and radio stations to run their commercials on; only X amount of space in newspapers and magazines and on billboards.
Critical Mass times ten isn’t any more critical or more massive.
During the last week of this election, the PACs still had millions of unspent dollars they had to spend. Since the swing states were already saturated with 24/7 commercials on every station, all the PACs could do was start bombarding the solidly red and blue states with their ads and hate messages. For what?
I wasn’t as alarmed by the Citizens United decision as most people were. I figured our “elected” officials were already drowning in bribes and “campaign contributions.” How much worse could it get? And we could always follow the money and see who’s bribing whom.
Then came the Dark Money: hundreds of millions of dollars “contributed” by anonymous bedwetting cowards who didn’t even have the balls to identify themselves. All they had to do was donate their money to a political organization that was disguised as a “charity” group. Charity organizations are tax-exempt and aren’t required to disclose the names of their donors.
It’s just a matter of time before the IRS comes to the no-brainer decision that these political organizations have ZERO to do with “charity” and therefore they have to pay taxes and they have to reveal the names of their donors.
And in the past few days, several of the above-mentioned bedwetting cowards have already been pulled out from under their rocks and dragged kicking and squealing and writhing into the sunlight.
Here and Here are two examples.
It’s a start.
posted by Tom Harper @ 9:38 AM
12 Comments:
Maybe with a couple of new judges on the Supreme Court, some real election reform can be accomplished.
And then next.....the churches!
Unfortunately the Conservative Supreme's were deliberately brought in young - can we say heart attacks or hunting accidents with Cheney, since old age aint happening soon.
That Frontline special was fantastic, but the Montana Supreme Court is about to be slammed by the SCOTUS determined to do the Billionaire's wishes!
Erik
Wish I could believe the White House ain't for sale, but I don't. Obama's hands aren't too clean either with all of the Wall Street types he's got on the team.
One of the reasons I think this huge investment to fail did indeed fail has not been discussed much. They spent too much money, bought too much commercial time and basically drove America crazy to the point that in the last two weeks America was tuning them out, turning them off and in some cases putting their feet through their TV sets. These idiots created a national movement of angry TV viewers. Many of became so angry, we actually thought less of many candidates we had previously been considering voting for.
And now that I think about it, I know now there is a limit of how much money is too much. In the future, I am sure some smart campaign manager is going to be able to capitalize on the opponents air time by creating a clever ad that will push their message without irritating the electorate. As a matter of fact it has already begun. In one of the House races in Massachusetts, Tierny , the incumbent, just hung onto his seat after a total rookie took him on. Richard R. Tisei, a realtor saw his numbers bump dramatically after he aired a 30 second spot that was 30 seconds of no sound, just an image of a post card view of some beach in Massachusetts. If you haven't seen it, check it out
Tisei Spot
They did not pace themselves and were so cocky they thought they could overwhelm us with ads and they would work. They were wrong.
Rove is their problem. He is continuing to play the game he played in 2000, but the demographics have left him in the dust. In 2012, pandering to the racism, homophobia, religious bigotry, and xenophobia of old white voters is a game of diminishing returns. Now, can we put to bed ONCE AND FOR ALL the lie about this porker clown being a "genius?"
Jerry: I hope so. But watch Scalia and Thomas remain hale and hardy into their late 90s.
JUDI M: If only.
Erik: Scalia and Thomas have been there for eons, and yet Thomas is in his mid 60s and Scalia is in his 70s. They'll probably stay there for 20 more years just to spite us.
Mr. C: No argument there. But Obama is slightly less indebted to Wall Street and the oil/coal cartels. Romney was the greater of 2 evils.
MRM: Funny ad; clever. A good example of creativity instead of just throwing money at a problem. Definitely more effective than the arrogant mindset of "Here, here's a few more million, take care of it."
JR: I hope you're right, that Rove's time came and went. He might be smart enough to adapt to the new demographics and new times, or he might not.
They will try and perfect this whole not letting the minions vote, I am certain of it. That being said, Meg Whitman and Carly Fiorina tried that here in CA and it didn't work for them either. Just shows that $1 does not equal 1 vote.
Conservatives say George Soros owns the Democratic Party. Not realizing he's being spent 20-1 by their Billionaires
Erik
Jess: I don't think they'll have much luck with their voter suppression drives. They pretty much suckerpunched everybody with these simultaneous Voter ID laws springing up out of nowhere (seemingly). Now that we're all on to ALEC and these other shady front groups, it'll be a lot harder for them to keep pulling these sleazebag tricks of theirs. I hope anyway.
Erik: I think the Right knows they outspend Soros 20 to 1; they just like to pretend they don't know so they can play the victim.
I'm guessing Romney and the GOP's battalions of billionaires and millionaires' donations could've put a generation of have nots through four years of college, if the money had been spent that way instead of trying to buy the White House, Congress, governors and so on. Had all that money been used that way, I'll bet the overwhelming majority of graduates would go on to become -- get ready for it -- makers.
For reasons I have trouble understanding, a substantial portion of the super rich see value in investing in things, rather than in people. Yet without educated, trained and motivated people, things aren't worth much. Sellers need consumers, companies need workers and investors, all in very large numbers. If wealth keeps concentrating at the top, it will be like a farmer killing his seed corn.
SW: Yup, education, infrastructure, scientific research -- that billion dollars could have been put to much better use than than trying to purchase the White House for a corporate stooge.
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