A Billion Dollars to Buy Democracy?

A Billion Dollars to Buy Democracy?

This is a video uploaded to YT by Dennis Kucinich on Wednesday, May 30, 2012.

"Money is destroying our politics and our political system," he states. "Our electoral system has become such a joke that two late-night comedians created their own SuperPAC and generated great laughter just by showing how one operates."

"Two years ago, in a case known as Citizens United, the five-man Republican majority of the Supreme Court ruled that corporations are "persons" under the First Amendment and that no act of Congress can restrict the amount a corporation can spend in an election."

Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission declared that campaign laws limiting monied influence by a corporation was a violation of the first amendment. It declared that corporations were legally "persons", the same as flesh-and-blood citizens, and could donate unlimited amounts bypassing FEC restrictions. From that point PACs (political action committees) that received massive amounts of money from single corporate "persons" became known as "Super PACs". A small number of these Super PACs have dedicated more than a billion dollars to reshaping and influencing the 2012 elections, one Super PAC alone has outlayed more than $400 million from the Koch Brothers to run ads during the 2012 cycle.

"This would have staggered our founding fathers."

"Corporations in their present form did not even exist in 1789 when the Bill of Rights was ratified. The Bill of Rights was written to protect individuals from the power of government. It was never intended to give artificial entities any right to participate in our elections."

And this truism:

"To save our democracy, we must get the influence of money out of our elections."


A Billion Dollars to Buy Democracy?
(youtube.com)

Visit the link to the YT video above for the complete text of Kucinich's statement, and for reader comments.

It should also be known that Dennis Kucinich fell victim to the practice of gerrymandering, as the State of Ohio removed the district which Kucinich represented in Congress by merging it with another district.

Yup, the Supreme court officially launched "Buy your Policy in America"

Just employ a politician and have your own private Senator taylor

make laws just for you.

They always want to privatize everything, now they have privatized

elections!


BRAVO

This is something I support wholeheartedly. I'd love to see the corporations being taken out of our government entirely. It's supposed to be a government for the people by the people and not a fascism.

As someone once said, "I'll believe corporations are people when Texas executes one."

Corporations don't buy government, they invest in it. And they always get a good return for their investment.

It's more like TWO billion dollars will be spent this election.

Romney and Republicans have more billionaires on their side, fewer donors but bigger sums.

Obammy and Democrats have more mom and pop donors, smaller sums but more of them.

Both will be spending one billion dollars each.

reply to post by oxykerfluffle


You did touch on something, the Republicans have fewer donors but those donors are spending big, where as the Dems have a larger number of sub-$2,500 donations. Both parties have the backing of billionaire Super PACs but I think we can state that unequivocally Wall Street is backing Romney.

Republican Super PAC’s Spending Big In 2012

The Republican affiliated Super PAC’s and other outside conservative groups have big spending plans this election cycle, and Democratic aligned outside groups may have a hard time keeping up.

Outside groups like GOP aligned Crossroads GPS, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and Americans For Prosperity, the group founded by the billionaire Koch brothers, are planning to spend roughly $1 billion this election cycle, according to a report from Politico.

It’s a staggering, unprecedented number.

The Democratic groups will spend big too, but nowhere near as much. Priorities USA — the pro-Obama Super Pac — hopes to raise $100 million, though they appear to be having a difficult time reaching that goal. Labor unions could spend up to $400 million.

All the union contributions ($400 million) equals one contribution from the Koch's.

More telling are the fundraising figures for groups affiliated with both parties. Democratic super PAC’s have had a tough time staying on par with Republican Super PAC’s, who are outraising Democrats by huge margins.

According to figures from the Sunlight Foundation, the top three Super PAC fundraisers this cycle are all Republican affiliated. The pro-Romney “Restore Our Future” reports raising $56.5 million. American Crossroads, the Super PAC arm of the Karl Rove group Crossroads GPS , has raised $29.9 million. The pro-Gingrich “Winning Our Future” has raised $23.9 million.

The single largest liberal donor is Soros;

Liberal donors, including George Soros, plan to donate up to $100 million to outside groups heading into November, according to a report from the New York Times. Even so, Democrats have a lot of ground to gain in order to close the fundraising gap with Republican groups in this area.

Anyhow, the WSJ is tracking the Super PAC spending here:
How Much Are Super PACs Spending?
(wsj.com)

This guy should be president. Instead he's ousted from politics. I think Ron Paul may be about to join him.

Our best people in politics, and all they can do is watch from the sidelines while the billionaires slime their way into control of everything.

G. Washington and the founders led an army to get the colonists out from under the feudal system. These a**holes are trying to put us right back under it.

reply to post by frankensence

G. Washington and the founders led an army to get the colonists out from under the feudal system. These a**holes are trying to put us right back under it.

That's basically what this is - the same lords and nobility that ruled during the feudal system are now trying to put the serfs back into their place. Not only by using judicial activism to strip them of their right to vote, but by overwhelming the electoral process with their money. A few hundred million is chump change to the likes of these robber-barons, and it's amazing how little power the citizenry has to stop it.

Yet you still defend obama to the death. I call fake

reply to post by HamrHeed


Thank you for such a well thought-out contribution. "Defend Obama to the death" - is that what it's called for pointing out Republican lies? Or for pointing out billionaires for buying the election? I don't recall it was any Obama appointees on the Supreme Court that sold out the country. Citizens United - the decision that turned over the electoral process to the very wealthiest and left you, dear citizen, in the dust.