It looks like the Big Money is trying to buy the election. Although some news outlets touch on this story, they aren't trying very hard to get to the bottom of it, or to highlight the egregiousness of the situation.
It's left for us to do this.
But what should we do, and how should we do it?
We should take a lesson from Fox News and the Republican Party.
Their tactics are to accuse before presenting evidence. They repeat the accusation, and the accused is forced to defend himself or herself. Classic Swiftboating.
And there's no reason why we can't be as good or better at it.
All it would take are one or two ads. The ad would run as follows:
(scary music)
(scary narrator voice):
(insert clear graphics naming names--Crossroads, Chamber of Commerce, AFP, etc. throughout this part of the narrative in a way that people can identify the names)
"This year, Republicans are relying on special interest groups to buy the election. They are funded by billionaires (insert picture of Koch Bros) corporations (insert picture of the most hated corporation) and even News networks (insert headline about Fox donating money to Republicans) who want to hide from the public, as well as foreign corporations (insert picture of Bank of China) and FOREIGN GOVERNMENTS (insert stock pictures of Arab businessmen) who have vowed to destroy our country."
"Elect Democrats and stop the destruction of our Democracy by the Republicans"
The entity that runs this ad would need to be completely transparently funded, and need a strong spokesperson.
When the inevitable backlash comes from Republicans, all the spokesperson needs to keep repeating is:
"We will continue to run this ad until ALL donors are revealed. Our donor lists are transparent and on line. Why aren't theirs? Who is bankrolling them? Why do they want to stay hidden? What don't they want the American People to know?"
And STICK to that story, no matter WHAT the question.
This will have the effect of driving the debate. People will start to clamor louder for full disclosure of who's paying for what. The networks, in the feeding frenzy to scoop the other, will do some hard research, for once and root out the nest of vipers. On BOTH sides.
Perhaps there will even be a call for serious reform. (Naaah. That's hoping for too much).
Will this stop the money? No, but it may tell the American people who is buying their election. AND, it may get the DISCLOSE Act passed.
Now, the only question is:
Is it already too late for us?