We need campaign finance reform
And somewhere in there, Citizens United must be overturned
If you’ve been watching the U.S. Senate even a little bit these last few days, you might come away gobsmacked that Republican Senators, despite a marked lack of public support, continued to push Trump’s big ugly bill.
Why would they doggedly hang onto this bad legislation? For a big part of that answer, look at who is funding their campaigns (and that’s not limited to Republicans, either).
You can learn a lot about a politician when you look at their donors. Take Sen. Mike Lee, MAGA-Utah. He gets quite a lot of money from the securities and investment industry, and he has not shown the backbone to bite the hand that feeds him. That might inform his occasional attacks on Social Security, mightn’t it? The more we privatize people’s retirements, the greater the bonus would be to — yes — the securities and investment industry.
And what about, say, Sen. Susan Collins? As with Lee, the Blackstone Group (now Blackstone Inc.), the world’s largest landlord, is a big donor. She has long been dining at the private equity trough. Is that a problem? You bet.
If you want to check out who funds other politicians, go to OpenSecrets.org. The website is a wealth of information.
And remember that while money has always tainted politics, the door to modern-day shenanigans was kicked open by the Supreme Court’s decision in 2010’s Citizens United v. FEC, a case that’s best explained here, or here:
As I write this, the big ugly bill has not yet been sent back to the House, but wherever it goes, despite our best efforts to stop this kind of thing, the next bad piece of legislation is just over the horizon until we force our elected leaders to answer to their constituents, as opposed to their corporate donors.
I have been saying this for what feels like forever! Citizens United certainly made things worse. Even before that, the lobbyists were evil. The money that controls our country doesn’t make this a democracy in any way, shape or form.
Not to mention the time and money campaigning! Imagine all the good that money could do!
If I were in charge, there’d be a campaign of three months and the candidates would get equal air time on the National channels.
As long as the six so-called ‘justices’ sit on the bench, Citizens United will remain settled law. We can only hope that Alito and Thomas die soon and/or any combination of the younger ones come down with some dread disease. I’ve never had such thoughts before (well, mostly before 2015) but with each 🍊felon-biased decision, I pray for their demise in some form or another.
And I’ll probably go to hell for it. ⚔️