Money. It cares not for human suffering, for right or wrong. As speech it is heartless, soulless and without conscience. The ratio of people who spend the lions share of the money in politics reminds me of the disparity in wealth seen in comparing the heirs of the Walmart fortune to the bottom 40% of Americans. The SCOTUS was wrong. Money corrupts. Completely. There are two important factors to bear in mind here. The first is just how large this explosion in spending was. Outside groups spent over $338 million trying to influence the 2008 elections, which was the last presidential election cycle before the Citizens United ruling. A handsome sum to be sure, but one that pales in comparison to the mind-boggling figure of over $1 billion of outside spending in the 2012 elections. In fact, there was more outside spending in the 2012 election cycle then in every presidential election cycle since 1992 combined. The second is just how small the number of people doing this spending is. In the 2012 election cycle, 216 people -- thats .00007 percent of the population -- contributed over $560 million to super PACs alone, which is more than one and a half times the amount of all outside spending in the 2008 election cycle combined. Put another way, 216 people spent nearly 11,000 times the amount an average family of four makes in an entire year on vapid attack ads produced by nebulous groups with names like Americans for a More American America. readersupportednews.org/opinion2/300-196/19872-the-citizens-united-shutdown
Posted on: Tue, 15 Oct 2013 04:26:03 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015