It seems our nation is careening towards becoming a Plutocracy. Its being fueled by an electorate that is adverse to complexity. The road to the plutocracy just got smoother this week with the defeat of the Disclose Act, which would have mitigated some of the effects of Citizens United.
Think Progress explains the intent of The Disclose Act.
The bill’s sole purpose would be to require outside groups who can currently spend unlimited sums of money on “independent expenditure” ads attacking and supporting presidential and other candidates to identify who is paying for the ads. Under current law, a 501(c)(4) tax-exempt group like Karl Rove’s Crossroads GPS can spend millions of dollars on attack ads without citizens ever knowing who is paying for them. Under the Disclose Act, if a group spends more than $10,000 on political ads in an election cycle, it would have to identify the donors funding the efforts.
In a functioning Democracy you wouldn't think disclosing the names of who is supporting your election efforts should be a hidden secret. Every GOP Senator voted against this bill as it failed to reach the 60 vote threshold to overcome the GOP filibuster
Bernie Sanders summed it up well:
"What really frightens me is not just the disastrous nature of Citizens United, but the whole trend that we are seeing lately, economically etc., of moving this country toward an oligarchic form of government. What you have right now is incredibly unequal distribution of wealth and income,” Sanders says, going on to note that “the Walton family of Walmart itself owns more wealth — one family — than the bottom 40 percent of the American people.”
He continues, “You’ve got that reality out there, and then what’s happening now — what Citizens United is about — is these guys are not content to own the economy, to own the wealth of America, they now want to own lock, stock and barrel the political process as well.”
The ultra wealthy are hijacking our country and nobody seems to be noticing. For most people politics is not a very serious business. It’s a form of entertainment nothing more. Casual voters are easily swayed. They don’t stand for much of anything. The little information they get is from some corporate media giant. Convincing them with simplistic mind numbing rhetoric how any regulation of corporate America is considered treason and how tax breaks for the wealthy are beneficial to our economy. Most voters don’t care that much about politics to do any real research. Who has time for that with a multitude of entertainment choices pulling at their time?
Originally posted on the NH Labor News
Written By Bill Brickley. Bill is a member of the National Association of Letter Carriers, serving on the NH Letter Carrier Executive Board as CD1 Legislative Liaison. Also serves on the NH AFL-CIO Executive Board. Former NH Area Coordinator Amnesty International and NH Labor News Blogger Follow him on twitter @BillBrickley
Bill makes a weekly post on the NH Labor New on Wed at 12 est.