'That's Oligarchy,' Says Sanders as Billionaires Pump Cash Into Trump Campaign | Common Dreams
"We must overturn the disastrous Citizens United Supreme Court decision and move to public funding of elections," said Sen. Bernie Sanders.
"We must overturn the disastrous Citizens United Supreme Court decision and move to public funding of elections," said Sen. Bernie Sanders.
‘That’s Oligarchy,’ Says Sanders as Billionaires Pump Cash Into Trump Campaigns
ftfy, Common Dreams
You're not wrong, but let's not lose sight of the fact that the ratio is decidedly in favor of ultra-Conservatives
Which makes it even dumber that Dems prioritize fundraising above the wishes of their constituency. Just look at how far to the right Kamala has been dragged by the donors, and marvel at the Dem strategists’ head scratching as to why she’s slipping in the polls. This system is totally broken for all but the rich and corporations.
We can stop this by first admitting the problem
Stop referring to it as a 'democracy' ... because it isn't.
Sure, people go to vote once every four years ... but the campaigns, advertising, marketing, influence, and payment to professionals to manage a campaign and then after the election to influence and lobby the same politicians on an ongoing perpetual system are all paid for by millionaires and billionaires (and if not directly, than indirectly)
Common people participate in the system once every four years .... millionaires, billionaires and corporations manipulate the system all the time whether there is an election or not
Who do you think has the most influence on a political system?
Why do we keep referring to it as a democracy?
Why do we keep referring to it as a democracy?
Because influence ≠ votes. It's a diseased democracy, plagued by capitalism, but we are not yet at the point where billionaires can simply buy Electoral College votes. If governance was just at the whims of the rich, why would they work so hard to suppress voting?
There's not much time left before the next election. Maybe take a break for your mental health, eh? Most people probably already know how they're going to vote, anyway.
Obligatory braindead: "It's a Republic"
But the fact is, It's a constitutional republic run of a representative democracy.
And to be clear, "representative democracy" is quite antithetical to a "direct democracy", which is what we all think when we say "democracy".
Basically: it's a crock of shit, on purpose!
as Billionaires pump cash into Trump campaign
They do this every year in every campaign. They do it for Henry Cuellar down in Texas and for Tim Sheely in Montana. They throw as much money at Gruesome Gavin Newsom as they do Ron DeSanctimonious. Eric Adams has been treating the Turkish Embassy as his personal ATM. Ted Cruz stuffs his pockets with AIPAC donations.
How do you overturn Citizens United in a legislature that is fully bought and paid for by the same pack of plutocrats who bankrolled the Federalist Society Judges that issued the decision?
I agree with the sentiment. But I'm not hearing a path forward. None of the candidates currently running seem serious about campaign finance reform. None of them seem enthusiastic about public funding. Not when so much of their personal finances are predicated on a revolving door of public-private patronage.
In a roundabout way he finally got around to draining that swamp. He's funneling funds from billionaires into his campaign so he can pay the government in his court cases.
No mention of the double number of billionaires backing Harris, or sanders' own history of taking billionaire funding?
Yeah and the senators who ratified women's right to vote were all elected by men but they still did the ethical thing.
At least Sanders seems to want to reduce billionaires' disproportionate influence on politics.
Maybe you're ok if Elon Musk's opinion on how much you should get taxed counts a billion times more than yours, but you really shouldn't be.
Sanders used to, then he endorsed Biden and now Harris, and has voted like any other corporate dem in the meantime. And we're pretty far backwards from where we were during women's suffrage, we had socialists in office then.
sanders' own history of taking billionaire funding
[Citation Needed]