Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2018/04/30/ayn-rand-fanfic.html
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Citizens United must be overturned !!
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An easy way is to financially support candidates who compete with the dangerous candidate.
Bert
I don’t see any of this as very complicated, and I assume that all Americans understand it, but perhaps that is not correct.
The process, as I see it, is this:
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Because there is no public financing of the campaign process, it requires money to be elected: you must run a successful campaign to defeat your opponents, which involves a certain amount of spending: flyers, signature-gathering, advertising spots on television, radio and internet, etc.
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Candidates present themselves to lobbyists, who offer campaign contributions. In poorer districts, where voters can’t offer many contributions, candidates will rely almost exclusively on donations from corporations, foundations, etc., perhaps outside of their constituency. In larger districts, candidates may rely on money from wealthier constituents.
- Lobbyists present the candidates with model legislation, either written by them or by a consortium (e.g. ALEC). The candidates push the model legislation through the legislature.
This is not a complicated loop, and it is not hidden. Capitalists (through various foundations, consortiums, etc.) are able to rewrite laws and regulations quite openly through these mechanisms.
I also don’t think this has anything in particular to do with Republicans or Democrats as a leading cause; the parties are largely window-dressing for the election show-pieces. People in rural districts tend to be conservative and therefore Republican; rural districts are poorer, because that is how urbanization works, so legislators from those districts will rely on corporate funding more. Meanwhile, people in cities are exposed to diversity and therefore tend to have liberal values and vote Democrat; these legislators will tend to rely on private donations from wealthy liberals and will represent their (wealthy, liberal) interests.
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Who gets to be Skurge the Executioner, come to their senses and turn against the right then?
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I just read Jane Mayer’s Dark Money. This trend is so fucking infuriating.
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This is Thomas Piketty’s theory? I would say it is more like established fact. Who knew?
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So what’s the difference between them?
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