“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
TrumpCampaignsftfy, 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.
Tbh, I don’t see things the way you see them.
Ignore the polls. Know what’s at stake, like judicial reform, LGBTQ rights, climate action, women’s rights, etc.
Most importantly, show up and vote. It matters.
Under the democrats’ watch with Biden as president, we have endured the following:
- let the repugs rush through ACB to Supreme Court in 2020, refusing to use the same legal principle applied by the republicans in 2016 to delay (which they leveraged to appoint Gorsuch instead of Garland)
- Biden announced early in his term he considered gays to be a security risk in the military, perpetuating harmful don’t ask don’t tell policies.
- RECORD oil and gas drilling, even more than Trump’s term, by a wide margin (over 50% more drilling permits)
- ended tax rebates for electric vehicles, but banned imports of affordable EVs from China, continuing Trump’s trade war
- overturn precedent to end abortion rights, instead of codifying Roe
If you look at the actual policies and bills proposed by elected officials, they consistently work on behalf of their donors, even when it’s harmful to their constituents. When asked about such actions, Pelosi has said they prefer to “lean to the green.” Fundraising appears to be the only concern of DNC leadership. Voting does not line their pockets - infer from that what you will.
Democratic strategists began emulating republicans’ pandering to corporations for donor money in the 80s, and Dems have been consistently losing seats at the state and local level since then. The reason why is quite simple - they are abandoning populists policies which benefit the working class, and instead are embracing pro-corporate policies. Consider Trump’s historic $2T tax cut for the rich and corps - Biden could hardly bring himself to agree to roll back half of it, and he still hasn’t implemented a rommback successfully. This leaves some of the most profitable companies in the world paying only 21% income tax. Most of us are paying more than that, especially when you consider that many of them utilize offshore accounts to pay effective taxes under 10% in most years. How are we going to pay for this theft of public resources by these corporate entities? This is not sustainable, and yet, here we are.
These are all facts. I’m sorry you don’t recognize them as such, or at least don’t “see them the same way.” If you actually care about these issues, it might be time to question the motives of DNC leadership with a bit more scrutiny.
I’m not questioning anything until the election is over. There’s a lot of dumb voters who go whichever way the wind takes them, and the last thing we need is division right now.
Also, don’t think I didn’t notice the fact that you didn’t mention anything good they’ve done, as if it’s only the bad things you listed. Also…
overturn precedent to end abortion rights, instead of codifying Roe
This is a prime case of hindsight. Dems did not have the benefit of future sight to know that a 40 year precedent would be overturned with such specious reasoning. We can whine all we want about what Congress should have done, but that’s because we live in the timeline where SCOTUS has been revealed to be wholly rotten.
Either way, I can argue with Democrats at a future time, but Republicans will find glee ignoring us plebs, so I don’t really see the point moaning about it now—as if there’s some viable alternative three weeks from the election.
I think it’s because historically, elections are won by the more well funded party. And they don’t have the incel-capital the GOP has.
imo, painting this as a ratio thing or a lib v conserv problem, is language that will not help to remove CU. Money should not be the metric for policy
I agree, which is why I said you’re not wrong. But when focusing efforts, you need to know what you’re up against and not presume they’re all created equal.
Definitely. I’m not trying to be combative here either. This is a class issue and both established political parties operate through the means of their financial backers. Looking at this as “both sides are wrong” may be the best way to get a push for non-partisan resolution and actually get citizens u removed
I like the way you think
I mean, you’re the one who started this very thread with a “both sides” comment…
Yeah, both sides of the political class receive a lot of money from PACs. I stand by that.
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.
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https://www.commondreams.org/news/bernie-sanders-citizens-united
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]
