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"A handful of deep-pocketed donors gets to determine
who runs for office, what issues make it onto the agenda, and too frequently,
who wins," said Dan Smith, democracy campaign director with U.S. Public Interest
Research Group.
For presidential contenders, appealing to the handful of
wealthy donors is as important as building support among voters.
It is apparent that the people don’t rule. They are ruled
over and managed and manipulated by various vested interests, but above all, by
the monied interests. The primary method this is done is divide and conquer.
The right-wing billionaires Charles and David Koch plan to spend close to $900
million on the 2016 campaigns, an amount on par with both the major political
parties, the Washington Post reported. The Kochs are longtime opponents of
campaign disclosure laws. Unlike the parties, their network is constructed
chiefly of nonprofit groups that are not required to reveal donors. That makes
it almost impossible to tell how much of the money is provided by the Kochs —
among the wealthiest men in the country — and how much by other donors. The
Kochs will have free rein in 2016 not only to pour astonishing amounts of money
into U.S. elections, but--in contrast with traditional parties--to do so in
secret, without disclosing the financial interests behind the spending.
Those resources will go into field operations, new
data-driven technology and policy work, among other projects, along with likely
media campaigns aimed at shaping the congressional and White House elections. That
network aims to advance a conservative platform that prioritizes austerity,
deregulation, and privatization while opposing efforts to address climate
change.
"The $1 billion the Koch network plans to spend in 2016
should dispel any doubts that the Kochs are operating their own secretly-funded
shadow political party," read a post on the PR Watch blog published.
"We have never seen this before," Sheila Krumholz,
who runs the non-partisan Center for Responsive Politics, told USA Today.
"There is no network akin to this one in terms of its complexity, scope
and resources."
A great deal hangs in the balance with regard to the
feasibility of advancing democratic socialism while under the continuous
attack. The organized expressions of popular power will probably be decisive in
determining the outcome of the present economic and political crossroad. Our class enemy out-spend us and buy their publicity and advocates. We have truth on our side.
1 comment:
And from here http://tinyurl.com/oth74ps
"Thirty-five of the 80 individuals controlling wealth hold American passports. Many of the names are familiar, such as Bill Gates, the Waltons of Wal-Mart fame, George Soros, Warren Buffett, both Koch brothers and Sheldon Adelson. It is also no surprise that many of these names are often seen on the same donor lists of politicians across the nation, Congress and our recent presidents. The Oxfam report notes than nearly 12 percent of political contributions come from the list of 80 billionaires.
In the first few weeks of the 114th Congress, legislation was introduced to roll back regulations on Wall Street, as well as consumer protection laws that have been in place. While voters have repeatedly said they want improved education, universal healthcare and a real chance at the American dream, our elected officials seem to not hear the public’s demands. These same elected officials are dependent on the money from the wealthiest, but are also responsible for creating policies that would reverse the flow of that wealth towards a more equitable distribution.
What we have here is not a failure to communicate but a clear and dangerous conflict of interest.
The inability to invest in assets, such as houses, savings, or highly expensive art has left the majority of the world with little to show for their hard work. Global poverty has continued to rise and it’s only going to get worse. Oxfam has predicted that if we do nothing, the wealthiest one percent of the world will control the same amount of wealth as the other 99 percent do combined.
The estimated time of arrival for this global wealth distribution is next year."
Class War indeed!
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