Rising Hegemon
On Oct. 8, the Supreme Court will take up an appeal from the Republican National Committee, Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Alabama businessman Shaun McCutcheon, who say contributions should be treated as "core political speech." If they win, wealthy Republicans or Democrats could each give as much as $3.6 million total by giving the maximum amount to all of their party committees and candidates. This money could be funneled by party leaders into a close race or races, tipping the balance of power in Congress.
Defenders of the election laws have been sounding the alarm. "It would be terrible for our democracy … if one politician could directly solicit $3.6 million from a single donor," said Lawrence Norden, an election law expert with the Brennan Center, a liberal legal advocacy group in New York. "That is 70 times the median income for an American family. It would mean a tiny, tiny group of donors would wield unprecedented power and influence."Or, as the conservatives on the Roberts' Court will almost certainly think of it...an awesome idea.
Here's a link to the pending case -- vomit sack not included.
[cross-posted at Firedoglake]
6 comments:
The average price of winning or holding on to a six-year term in the U.S. Senate averaged $10,476,451 in the 2012 election cycle, MapLight said.
Slightly less pricey, obtaining or being re-elected to the U.S. House of Representatives cost an average of $1,689,580.
Look on the bright side. Your local area congresscritter will be able to relax and get some sleep, knowing his fundraising needs are well met by a few sugar daddies who only need a wee favor every now and then.
And as the rest of us bemoan the power of the new robber barons, we’ll all know to thank the Roberts court for selling us out.
Ah, yes, whenever America encounters corruption, it does its level best to legalize it.
After all, that's what government is for, right?
Why not eliminate the middleman and save a lot of money and trouble..?
Just let the billionaires elect our government.
men are not created equal.
I find it gets so very tiring – listening to the liberals whine and cry about the Koch brothers. People in the United States and of varying opinions about the mission of government. Those that believe government is an avuncular big brother – there to catch you when you stub your toe obviously have never studied history and innocently have no concept that absolute power corrupts absolutely. Please stop. Instead of blathering on against the Koch brothers – why not go out and do something constructive (to help the downtrodden)?
Spend some time reading what Thomas Jefferson had to say so many years ago. It is the very same thing that KOCH brothers espouse. They are not reinventing the wheel. Today's citizens by and large see history sanitized of emotion and don't have a clue that Hitler ran on a platform very similar to the views of many liberals. Just stop, please stop… Do something constructive.
Tarpon Rick is a moron. Here's what Thomas Jefferson really said about the accumulation of wealth: "I hope we shall crush… in its birth the aristocracy of our moneyed corporations, which dare already to challenge our government to a trial of strength and bid defiance to the laws of our country."
The Koch brothers not only did not earn their wealth (they inherited it from father Fred, so they're part of the artificial aristocracy of which Jefferson scornfully wrote), they use that wealth to unduly influence the political system for sake of profit and rent-seeking,and to convince idiots like Tarpon Rick that they are patriots, when, in fact, they are thieves and scoundrels, precisely the attributes with which Jefferson found such overwhelming fault.
Goddamn, the stupidity, it burns.
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