Monday, October 11, 2010

They Are Buying Our Elections

GOP: Best Friend of Foreign Multinationals

Remember when Republicans at least pretended to be looking out for the common man? When they at the very least put on a show every two years to convince you that they were, indeed, still the party of the working class folks, looking out for American families and jobs? Let's recap the last few months of Republican activities, just in case you might be unclear on where they stand.

Since the Citizens United decision, any regard for the working man has gone out the door. They're done even pretending to be your friends. They want to make sure the United States government is government by and for the wealthy. Just in the last few months, the right-wing Republican politicians in the pocket of corporate America have openly protected companies who outsourced American jobs overseas. They voted against providing loans to small business trying to create more private sector jobs. They voted against help for states and protecting endangered public sector jobs because it might raisetaxes on big Pharma's offshore bank accounts. They voted against regulating the big Wall Street banks that ate our 401ks and rewarded themselves with obscene bonuses. They voted against helping familes and children of homelessveterans. They even voted against giving healthcare to sick and injured 9/11responders, for chrissakes.

But what have they done?

They jumped in bed with a British company that polluted American waters and completely destroyed an entire region's economy. They've pushed candidates to the fore running for prestigious national offices who advocate againstmasturbation. Who want to repeal Social Security and Medicare. Who want to eliminate social safety nets that keep the hungry fed and the jobless from becominghomeless, at least for everyone to whom they aren't directlyrelated.

Just in case we still aren't clear on where the GOP stands in its relations to the working public vs the corporate special interests, they had a Pledge to America written by a former lobbyist for Big Oil. And their entire network of "grassroots organizations" that push a pro-corporate, anti-regulation agenda, from Freedomworks to Americans For Prosperity, are funded from the pockets of two arch-conservative oilbillionaires.

The Republican party is the party that pledges to protect millionaires and billionaires, at the expense of you and me.

And this is exactly why those millionaires and billionaires are giving them unprecedented amounts of money to make sure they retake Congress this November.

Elections For Sale

The most money ever spent on an election in the United States was $1B, back in 2008. One billion dollars for one race. And a billion dollars is not a small chunk of change. Of course, this was before the Citizens United vs. FEC 5-4 ruling by the John Roberts Supreme Court, back when corporations could only donate so much to a political campaign.

Since that decision, the floodgates have been opened on corporate spending, and a record $4B is being spent on the 2010 midterm elections. And it's mostly on negative attack ads focusing on Democratic candidates in US Senate races.

Now, in terms of party committee spending, the Democrats actually win in that category. It was reported fairly recently that the RNC was drastically short of funds needed to take them all the way to November 2nd. This new flood of spending comes from corporations, not campaign committees. And some of those corporations aren't even based in the United States. which, by the way, makes political donations from them illegal.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, a fiercely right-wing lobbying organization for corporate America, is allegedly funnelingmoney from foreign multinationals to the 2010 races. This money is specifically being used to attack progressive Democrats who pledge to fight for the people, not for corporate profits. Since the U.S. Chamber is a 501(c)(6) organization, they don't have to disclose who their donors are. Because business is done globally in the 21st century, and because the Chamber represents multinational companies, it's hard to imagine that foreign multinationals aren't using the Citizens' United decision to throw money at flooding airwaves with
negativity. Tax laws allow for lots of leeway. Here's ThinkProgress' take:

These foreign members of the Chamber send money either directly to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, or the foreign members fund their local Chamber, which in turn, transfers dues payments back to the Chamber’s H Street office in Washington DC. These funds are commingled to the Chamber’s 501(c)(6) account which is the vehicle for the attack ads.

So how can we stop this? It's simple.

Get. Out. The. Vote.

A Republican majority in Congress means that when the corporate boot is on the neck of the American people like it is right now, what the people will get is a kick in the face instead of a hand up. If you're tired of conservative leadership in Congress that votes no on job creation and yes to coddling the rich with trillion-dollardeficits, if you're fed up with half of America's children depending on food stamps while billions of tax dollars go to Big Oil, or if you're just tired of government by and for the wealthy, then PLEASE vote Democratic in November.

America NEEDS you at the polls. Put the car in Drive, not Reverse.

No comments:

Post a Comment