When the Tea Party coaxed the U.S. House of Representatives to shut down the government last October, we lost billions of dollars, slowed economic recovery, stopped paying up to 850,000 federal employees, halted critical services, shut down national parks, shut down parts of the military, stopped healthy and safety inspections, ceased government scientific research (in some cases, forcing long-term experiments to start from scratch later), and more.
And guess what? If Republicorp takes over the U.S. Senate in November, Mitch McConnell promises another government shutdown unless the rest of government agrees to gut the EPA, repeal Obamacare, slash Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security and more.
This is absolutely insane.
Few voters want those programs cut, and yet more and more pollsters predict Republicorp will take over the Senate. So why the hell are people saying they'll vote for a party that promises to trash core services we rely on and destroy the economy - again?
Two reasons: Voter apathy, and a flood of money paid by the 1% thanks to Citizens United.
Voter apathy, I don't know what to do about. If people won't spend an hour or two each year voting for their best interests, I'd say they deserve what they get. Except that I and all the rest of us get the same crap. Poll after poll shows Democrats/Progressives outnumber Republicorp supporters, yet they turn out in lower numbers. Why? Maybe because conservatives have the tendency to be more angry and motivated to vote?
Why isn't the other side angry and motivated? This is what the "elites" think of the rest of us. Should the government work to ensure anyone that wants a job can find one? 81% say no. Okay, then should unemployment benefits provide a decent standard of living? 77% say no. Well then, should everyone at least have food, clothing, and shelter? 57% say no.
Angry yet?
In 2009, twelve republican senators met after Obama was elected in a secret meeting to discuss how to undermine the economy and make Obama's second term a failure. These rich assholes are purposely driving us into the ground so they can get their candidates in office and take more and more of our money, yet they won't support finding us jobs or even provide minimal basic necessities.
Angry yet?
If people think that a flood of advertisements on TV, radio, billboards, mailings, etc are being magically paid for by kind, rich benefactors that have their best interests at heart, I don't know what's wrong with them. And yet those ads work. Citizens United and McCutcheon have led to absolutely insane spending on campaigns of voter manipulation and disinformation, and those campaigns often work. On the plus side, small donations from millions of individuals who want change have ramped up to combat that insane spending. If only we could put our dollars to work educating people not to vote against their own interests instead of trying to fend off lies spread far and wide by the tidal wave of money and media control from Koch brothers and friends, we could actually get our lives back on track.
There's a chance for that coming up soon. From MoveOn.org:
"The Senate is about to vote on Citizens United, one of the least popular Supreme Court decisions ever. Any senator who votes wrong is putting a huge political target on their back -- if we can raise enough money to hold them accountable. Citizens United isn't just one of the worst Supreme Court decisions ever -- it's one of the least popular. Seriously, 80 percent of Americans oppose it. Even 72% of Republican voters think the Supreme Court got it wrong."
So if you can put together some cash, donate what you can now to overturn Citizens United and you won't have to donate so much in the future to hold back the tidal wave of 1% spending. That, or you can just resolve to live in a hole after all the jobs are shipped away to bolster the elites' profits.
Out here in California, the CA DISCLOSE act is facing its final vote this Saturday. DISCLOSE will force all ads to display who funded them right on the ad. It won't stop the flood of money, but it will at least show people where it's coming from and help them judge the message by who's sending it.
Despite all these ridiculous odds and dire predictions, Democrats held the Senate in 2012. Part of that is because their Tea Party challengers are looking more and more insane to most people, what with government shutdowns, ignoring actual job creation, "legitimate rape" comments, and outright corruption arrests, but part of it is also the money we spend and the time we put in. 39,000 Hawai'i MoveOn.org members just secured another narrow victory that will hopefully keep progressive Senator Brian Schatz in office. These battles have gotten increasingly difficult thanks to Citizens United, but they're still winnable. We need to push harder than ever to both win our candidates to office and end Citizens United and friends, or we're in for another economic fall and a long, dark journey.