Make
no doubt about it, the spending reports on the 2010 and 2012 elections are
clear; they show that the Democratic Party cannot keep up with the Republicans
in raising campaign funds outside of their party organizations. Republican outside
spending in 2010 nearly doubled what Democrats could spend and it has more than
doubled what Democrats have spent in 2012.
by Charlie Leck
by Charlie Leck
What does that
opening statement mean? The Democrats do all right against Republicans when
campaign spending is left to what can be done by the party organizations
themselves, but the Republicans can raise twice as much when it comes to
outside organizations like the money given by billionaires to the SUPER PACs.
…”The result has been a stupefying array of PACs, 501(c)4s and 501(c)6s
that even professionals can barely keep track of….
“The first
chart, provided by the Center for Responsive Politics, shows that
outside spending tilted left in every year from 2000 to 2008, but that in 2010
— in the aftermath of deregulation — the balance skewed decisively to the
right. In the current 2011-12 election cycle, it shifted overwhelmingly to the
right:”
The downside of
all this for the Republican Party, according to Edsall in his story, is that
the bulk of this funding is come from right-wing elements in the Party that are
very disruptive – elements that are “more willing to go to extremes: see the
billboards showing Obama bowing down before an Arab Sheik or the ads and DVD
claiming that Obama is the bastard son of the African American communist, Frank
Marshall Davis.” You can see Jeremy Peters story about
that billboard here.
What the Republican
Party is very likely to find out, in the long run, is that it is no longer the
Republican Party, but some very far right wing organization controlled by a
long list of the nut cases and whacko religions in the nation. Edsall carefully
explains the dangers in all of this for the Republican Party itself. I think people like Sheldon Adelson and the Koch brothers are destroying the Republican Party and doing a huge disservice to America.
Welcome to the
America created for us by the United States Supreme Court!
Be sure to go to this story and read the entire account – especially
if you’re concerned about where Citizens
v. United is taking us.
…”The displacement of the parties by super rich men determined to flex
their financial muscles in another giant step away from democracy.” [Thomas B.
Edsall, in the above referenced story.]
Edsall is a professor of
journalism at Columbia University and the author of the book “The Age of Austerity: How Scarcity Will
Remake American Politics.”
_________________________
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