The very idea that John Boehner could be the speaker of the United States House of Representatives makes a mockery of our Government and our Democracy. Our prospects for wresting control of our Government from the fascist stooges and the rich who own them are greatly diminished by their control of the corporate media who provide no useful or truthful information, and by an all-out assault on our Constitutional rights.
Our Government is not swayed by the will of the people, and in fact works actively and deliberately against our interests in the service of their wealthy supporters (whose greed and lust for power is allowed to trump the greater good).
The people pulling the strings fear the backlash against their looting and thus have worked to close off avenues of resistance as much as possible. But they’ve left an important door open to us - one they themselves use extensively: money.
So, imagine organizing a million middle class people who could contribute $100 a month. Imagine bringing $100 million against the Kochs each month. It could be used to support good candidates, fund investigations by Journalism schools and other organizations, and support alternative media outlets. It could be split between the 50 states or focused on specific races during elections. It could be used in imaginative ways to counter the propaganda any way possible. It could even fund food programs and clinics, and other social services that the radicals have been working to dismantle. If it’s legal for the Kochs and their ilk to use their money to buy our Government, it’s certainly legal for us to use money to get it back. At least this would be a legitimate social welfare organization.
The only way we can compete with them or counter them is by collective action. There are a lot more of us than there are of them. That's why they're the 1%. It’s just a matter of organizing.
To organize such an effort would be a challenge to be sure, and certainly the 1% would resist these efforts. They would try to have their stable of bought up politicians put up legal roadblocks, and their media certainly wouldn’t help us. But an effort like that, if it caught on, could create a buzz and become self-sustaining. It could spawn other ones – maybe for people who could kick in $50 or $20. Other hurdles would be preventing corruption of the effort, and determining how to utilize the funds. Likely some sort of foundation or similar entity would need to be set up - administrators and officers elected and a constitution or charter spelling out the operation agreed to - before it really got started.
This truly would be citizens united, and I’d happily commit to such an effort.