…and the Brave New World of campaign finance post-Citizens United. He goes into the whole legal money-laundering aspect of giving shloads of money to 501c4’s (who don’t have to disclose their donations/donors), who then can turn around and give it all to a SuperPAC, among other things.
Then of course they’ve got the apologist for the way things are now and want it to be more so: http://www.npr.org/2012/02/23/147294511/understanding-the-impact-of-citizens-united (who says he favors disclosure, but strongly implies that he’s perfectly fine with the 501c4 crap above, which is clearly against the spirit of even the Citizens United decision, as Potter points out by quoting the Court’s majority opinion).
Good interview. I don’t think there’s any way to prevent the slow descent from democracy to plutocracy, but it’s at least heartening to see that other people are noticing, mad about it, and want to stop it.
It’s really strange that the Election Comission is specifically appointed by the Congress to regulate the electoral politics, and yet it has multiple members who don’t believe that it should even exist… I’m getting a headache from trying to understand all this. :D
Well, that’s what happens when one of your major political parties is completely fine with naked plutocracy, and pretty much believes that the source of all society’s problems is that the rich just aren’t rich enough.
And I know that the other political party is also supported/captured by its own rich people/industries–most Democrats’ former uncritical support of SOPA/PIPA is a great example. The Dems are just somewhat more conflicted about the slide into plutocracy, I guess.
Listening to the followup interview with some dude from Focus On the Family making glib unreasoned arguments in a monotone voice that too little money is spent on elections and that it’s too regulated while constantly interrupting and talking over the host made me want to kill myself when I realized that professional politics is probably full of assholes like him.
The Republican party is ideologically committed to the notion that government does not work. When they win elections, they go about doing their best to prove it.
They’ve taken to heart a famous quote by some conservative guy from the 20’s to the effect that “The best government employee is a bad government employee.”
