What Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission Hath Wrought!

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

Source: Center for Responsive Politics

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 following comes from a NY Times article by Thomas B. Edsall (Billionaires Going Rogue):

…”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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Why No Republican Rebuke?

Representative Allen West (Republican from Florida) publically stated recently that 76 Congressional Democrats (perhaps as many as 81) are actual members of the Communist Party.
by Charlie Leck

It was extraordinarily dumb of Representative West to say it, but he did. Amazingly, he said it with a straight face and then reiterated that he meant it. Though we’ve come to expect our members of Congress to say utterly stupid things from time to time, there is a difference here. Here's what it is: the Republican Party of America has not stood up to rebuke the Congressman and to declare that he misspoke – or spoke stupidly – or lied – or didn’t know what he was talking about.

Marxists in the Congress?
When the question was asked of Representative West, some in the crowd guffawed, but West shook the naysayers off and assured the audience that “…it’s a good question.”

He told his audience that there were members of the Democratic Party who were also members of the Communist Party. He said he was talking about the Congressional Progressive Caucus (76 Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives).

This is all laughable, I suppose – unless, of course, Representative West was talking about you. I’m sure those members of Congress didn’t think it was funny.

It took me back to times in America when we were talking about the Radical Right. Remember the John Birch Society? It still exists, by the way, and you can read about some of their fear mongering here – at the John Birch Society web site.

The point I want to make – as strongly as I possibly can – is about the silence of the Republican Party following Representative West’s utterly obnoxious statement. The Tea Party is dragging us back to the time when the John Birch Society actually had a significant following. Both build their strength through fear and untruths.

It is only right that such ugliness and lies should be rebuked – we’re not talking about distortions here – or debatable facts – or foggy interpretations. We are talking about out-and-out lies and the Grand Old Party should speak up and out about such attacks.

We’ve returned to a time when a political party is willing to build upon fear rather than upon truth. Oh, my! Oh, my!

You can read the Washington Post story about Mr. West here (you can also view a video of his statement).

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