You Bought It, You Broke It
Wa$$hington, DC
April 10,
2014
Maybe I'm just jealous. Who knows,
maybe if I made $123,000 a year I would just buy myself some politicians. You
know what they say: Give a man a fish and he'll eat for a day, teach a man how
to fish and he'll eat forever, give a man his own politician and he can make
other people bring him all the fish he wants, when he wants for as long as he
wants and he doesn't have to do any work whatsoever. I may have paraphrased,
but you get the drift. $upreme Court Chief Jackass Justice John Roberts would have us
believe that nobody gives huge sums of money to get someone elected in the hope
that their money has no effect whatsoever on how that person governs. He actually said that...out loud...from the bench.
Billionaire
Charles Koch - proud owner of many politicians all across this great land - in
his recent The Wall Street Journal op-ed piece entitled, I'm Fighting to Restore a Free Society: Instead of welcoming free
debate, collectivists engage in character assassination, repeatedly referred to those who
disagree with his philosophy of money-as-free-speech as collectivists. I guess the man tied with his brother for fourth
richest in America can be forgiven for eschewing the use of the word communists, considering it too passé. Koch
whined in Rupert Murdoch's pages, "The central belief and fatal conceit of
the current administration is that you are incapable of running your own life,
but those in power are capable of running it for you. This is the essence of
big government and collectivism." Lest we forget, these Koch brothers sued
their two other brothers to wrest their massive inheritance from their father
who made his millions in oil and helped found the John Birch Society - the
original Tea Party. So these guys know exactly how things work and who should
be running things - white guys who were born on third base and act like they
hit a triple.
The lead
plaintiff in McCutcheon v. FEC, Shaun McCutcheon said "It's about freedom
of speech and the government does not need to limit any Americans regardless of
economic status." Yes the government that is already practically owned by corporations,
the government that has lobbyists writing our laws (How many laws have you been
asked to write?), should not be persecuting these poor rich people who
otherwise have no say in public affairs. Everybody knows that the government's
job is to persecute poor people who don't have money and to make sure they are
hindered from voting. That's what a democracy is. And those are the kinds of
policies the people Shaun McCutcheon thinks should be running a small (minded)
government, believe in too.
Money is Speech, Voting is Passé
RNC Chair Reince
Priebus (Side note: Reince Priebus,
also the Latin name for a small cave-dwelling mammal that never cleans itself
and avoids predators by emitting a painful, high-pitched shriek while spitting
a noxious substance that would make a skunk's eyes water.)beamed, "I am
proud that the RNC led the way in bringing this case and pleased that the Court
agreed that limits on how many candidates or committees a person may support
unconstitutionally burden core First Amendment political activities. When free
speech is allowed to flourish, our democracy is stronger." This from the
party that spends most of its time illegally purging voter rolls of undesirable
(non-white, non-conservative, non-rich) though completely legitimate voters,
fighting to restrict voter access and putting out leaflets with the wrong dates
in heavily Democratic districts. This from the party that knows and has publicly
stated for decades that they know they cannot win if too many people vote. Next
they will be passing laws requiring a pigment test in order to vote - it's not
about race, just melanin.
In case you
missed the recent New York Times headline: New
G.O.P Bid to Limit Voting in Swing States, or this Slate headline: Cursed With Nation’s Second-Highest Turnout
Rate, Wisconsin Restricts Early Voting, the GOP has been very busy
exercising States' Rights to Beat Down The Vote, having taken control of many
states. "After the frightening reality of having elected a black president
we just can't let something like that happen again," chirped Koch Brothers-owned,
Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, adding, "If you let one of them become
president then they'll all want to be president, and this is a white, Christian
nation. We're just trying to protect the Voting Whites Act."
It's not
just the Republican'ts standing in the way of voter participation. The same white-hooded
black-robed five recently gutted the Voting Rights Act, thereby setting the
stage for the states that inspired a need for voting rights to throw black
folks caution to the wind and implement myriad roadblocks to keep all
non-white, non-millionaires from casting ballots. The Feckless Five are
convinced that money doesn’t have a corrupting influence on politics. They do
believe that the real corrupting influence on politics is voters. Clearly they
are channeling Abraham Lincoln in their quest for a government of the money, by
the money and for the money. We're almost there.
Senate
minority leader Mulch McConnell explained that rulings like Citizens United and
McCutcheon “enable more citizens to be involved, more citizens to contribute to
the candidates and causes that they believe in; that’s good for America.” The
only good news is that since Global Climate Change is also apparently good for
America, we won't have to put up with this crap for too much longer.
In Other News of The Greedy
Paul Ryan,
super-genius of Republican't economic policy who still thinks they can repeal
the Affordable Care Act after failing to do so over fifty times so far,
released his "new" budget. It is his old budget with a different date
on the cover page. He wants to privatize Medicare, cut food stamps and Medicaid
while proposing to give huge tax breaks to households making over ONE MILLION
DOLLARS. This refreshing new idea is bound to stimulate the economy…of
households making over one million dollars. If I were you I'd start becoming a
household making over one million dollars as soon as possible. The added bonus
of course is this will enable you to own more members of Congress.
Maybe Mark
Twain was right when he said, “If
voting made any difference they wouldn't let us do it.”
I. Mangrey reporting.
Thanks for
listening. I can't be bought, but it's worth a try.
Champagne contributions welcome.
