Welcome to the world of post-Citizens United elections, where the results of elections can be seemingly bought and sold by corporate interests and the wealthiest Americans.
Republican super PACs and other outside groups shaped by a loose network of prominent conservatives – including Karl Rove, the Koch brothers and Tom Donohue of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce – plan to spend roughly $1 billion on November’s elections for the White House and control of Congress, according to officials familiar with the groups’ internal operations.
That total includes previously undisclosed plans for newly aggressive spending by the Koch brothers, who are steering funding to build sophisticated, county-by-county operations in key states. POLITICO has learned that Koch-related organizations plan to spend about $400 million ahead of the 2012 elections – twice what they had been expected to commit.
It’s important to point out the $1 billion in outside money that is likely to be spent by Republican super PACs and other Republican-allied outside groups is in addition to the money spent by the traditional party apparatus – in this case the Romney campaign and the Republican National Committee. The money spent by the Romney campaign and the RNC could be somewhere in the neighborhood of $800 million, meaning that the amount of money spent to help Mitt Romney win the 2012 presidential election could total nearly $2 billion.
That’s a heck of a lot of money to spend to win an election, and it doesn’t bode well for those of us who aren’t large corporations or the super-rich.
If it’s not OK for “billionaires and corporate interests” to donate campaign money, why is it OK for hedge fund managers, like George Soros, millionaires, like the Hollywood crowd, and unions to donate campaign money?
Sounds like hypocrisy to me.
Tom Harlen: Are you suggesting that transforming the POTUS into a commodity purchasable for 1 billion dollars or more regardless of political stance is proper or good? Are you implying that we can preserve a functioning republic if “both sides” engage in a system where political office is vendible?
I’m on board with you, Zach. Citizens United has ended democracy as we knew it, and the beneficiaries of that post-Citizens United America are radical Conservatives and Libertarians whose big money will craft a very small government with very tiny interests.
Obama’s campaign has respoded to anti-propaganda Ads in an attempt to counter the lies and disinformation generated by the Koch-Rovians. Meet lies with truth is the plan. Not a bad plan, but woefully incomplete.
Consider this fundraising email by James Carville – it gets to the heart of what I continually harp on – the Democratic trajectory is just a little off:
“Friend – We’ve gotta wake up. Everywhere I go, people are telling me that “Obama has it in the bag.” Newsflash: nothing is in the bag. We’re being attacked by Republicans from every which way. Americans see the President out there fighting for the middle class, but they’ve got the Koch Brothers’ Super PAC hollerin’ in one ear and Karl Rove’s Super PAC squawkin’ in the other. We’ve gotta go on offense, talk about how the middle class is in a struggle for its very existence, and hold these wingnut Republicans in Congress accountable. Midnight Deadline: Donate $3 or more right now to help Democrats go on offense against radical Republicans.
I promise you: we can win this in November, but not if Democrats sit on their hands. It starts today — donate $3 or whatever you can to defeat these radical Republicans. http://dccc.org/Go-On-Offense C’mon now! James”
Wake up? The middle class is in a struggle for its very existence? Really? The middle class has been struggling for thirty years, and Democrats are complicit in implementing policy that has contributed to their demise. And what about the poor – they’re not middle class; what about the homeless – they’re not middle class; what about the weakest among us who do not contribute to the labor pool – they’re not the middle class. Is the best response to the Koch-Rovian onslaught more moola – extracted from those who are least able to fork it over? Newsflash: The offensive means progressive policy making. And fast.
I think not. Elections are won and the world is changed not by money, but by ideas. If Democrats want victory over right wing radicals, it’s not going to be by outspending the bottomless, corrupted wellspring of ill-gained wealth. It will be by devising and advocating policy ideas that actually benefit the vast majority of Americans now and over the long term. Where is the plan, where are the structural policy changes that Democrats are willing to enact? Ideas and substance will defeat monied interests and radical conservatism now and in the long term. But Democrats will not go there.
What is 2 billion divided by 3? About 66 million. The population of the United States is approximately 300 million. How many Americans are currently living in poverty conditions? About 50 million. How much do we spend on healthcare each year? About 2 trillion. How much are the Bush tax cuts worth to the likes of those fueling the Conservative-Libertarian agenda that is dismantling our democracy? About 3 trillion. Need I go on?
Democrats need principles, ideas and priorities in order to change minds and win elections. Sane and humane policy that uplifts the quality of life with a refocus on public rather than private will be the way Democrats win. If they don’t see it now, they will lose for a very, very long time.
Where the spending really hurts Democrats is when the money affects the editorials…and it has from the beginning. Look at the Milwaukee Sentinel’s endorsement of Walker. How can that be from any unbiased political thinker?