Voices from the Flats – Kill Moloch.
The Urgency of Campaign Finance Reform:
A Meditation on Election Day, 2010
by Elstun Lauesen
Let me begin with a little Ginsberg:
I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked, dragging themselves through the negro streets at dawn looking for an angry fix; Angel-headed hipsters burning for the ancient heavenly connection
to the starry dynamo in the machinery of night.
Yeah. Word up.
Here’s what I see. I see the best candidates of my generation destroyed by other people’s madness; people who are well fed and well-dressed, driving through the paved exurbs and hillsides looking for an angry fix; ditto-headed Christers burning for the ancient heavenly connection to explain the random crap in their lives and, in the process, getting manipulated by the political machinery of the Right.
Nationally, the moneychangers, potentates and idol-worshippers that control the political Right purchased the control of the U.S. House of Representatives on November 2nd.
Citizens United v Federal Election Commission, 130 S.Ct. 876 (2010)
The black-robed Justices of the Roberts Court are dominated by an ideology that is structurally anti-human: Capitalism. And the Citizens United case gave voice and standing to corporations in time for this election cycle. The Roberts court had a special sitting to consider Citizens United in September 2009. Most court observers agree that the decision was intended to affect the 2010 election cycle.[1]
The Court struck down a provision of the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002 § 203 (popularly known as McCain-Feingold) or BCRA that prohibited all corporations, both for-profit and not-for-profit, and unions from broadcasting “electioneering communications.”[2]
Justice Scalia joined the opinion of the 5 Justice Majority making explicit an interpretation of First Amendment Rights that vests the ‘rights of Englishmen’ with
corporations. In the fine tradition of Judicial Kabuki, Scalia feigned shock at the Dissenters by asking (in effect) “How can you assert that…
“…the rights of Englishmen did not include the freedom to speak in association with other individuals, including association in the corporate form”[3]
The Dissent in this case was written by Justice Stevens and joined by Justices Ginsberg, Breyer and Sotomayor. The Dissent calls out the Right-Wing Court Majority for their ham-handed treatment of McCain-Feingold. Justice Stevens couldn’t be clearer in his condemnation of the Majority. BCRA § 203 was never at issue in Citizens United!
Stevens writes that the Majority “…changed the case so they could change the law”[4}
Stevens goes on to write:
At bottom, the Court’s opinion is thus a rejection of the common sense of the American people, who have recognized a need to prevent corporations from undermining self government since the founding, and who have fought against the distinctive corrupting potential of corporate electioneering since the days of Theodore Roosevelt. It is a strange time to repudiate that common sense. While American democracy is imperfect, few outside the majority of this Court would have thought its flaws included a dearth of corporate money in politics.[5]
Where is all the hand-wringing on the Right about activists Judges? (Crickets)
The Rise of the Moloch, The Grand Acquisitors and Their Tools such as Karl Rove and Dick Armey.
With the Citizens United decision in place, legal breath and speech was bestowed upon the godless and soulless corporation. Like the Moloch of old, the corporation could spew gold from its collective mouth. The black-robed Brethren, via Magister Scalia’s invocation cited above, gave personhood to the (collectively) most powerful creature on earth. Well before the Brethren summonsed the powers of the Undead, the servants of Moloch’s Masters, who I call the Grand Acquisitors, were putting in place the machinery to gather Moloch’s gold for the purpose of directing it against those who were regarded as their enemies. The Grand Acquisitors are those for whom acquisition and accumulation of wealth is the highest religion. I call it a religion, because “acquisition and management of wealth” is what consumes these people fervently. It occupies their thought and defines their vision of the world. While the obligatory few hours occupying a church pew may give them a religious label, the true religion of the Acquisitors is conducted within the corporate shells that host them. The Grand Acquisitors are a network of the richest and most powerful corporations and their directors. Their cloak of invisibility is the ‘corporate veil’ and their loyalty is to no nation, creed or culture; the growth of Capital is the only function that they serve.
To explore a nice schematic of the Moloch, please click here.
There are three components to the machinery that is fed by the Moloch: Aggregators, Taggers and The Horde.
Aggregators are organizations like the ones created by Karl Rove and Ed Gillespie (former Chairman of the Republican National Committee) to take advantage of the Citizens United decision and the end of McCain-Feingold. American Crossroads and CrossroadsGPS are two examples of Aggregators. These organizations function as matchmakers. They match a pool of affiliates with campaigns whose candidates serve the Capitalist cause. In effect, Karl Rove and tools like Rove are the central nervous system for Moloch. So grateful were the Corporate Masters to Clarence Thomas for his good works on their behalf in the Citizens United case, that they gave Justice Thomas’ wife’s Aggregator, Liberty Central, a million dollars after the decision. [6]
Taggers (or ‘Tagging’) is the role played by the Party establishment. In the case of the Republicans in the 2010 cycle, they needed to support candidates running against Democrats and the Moloch targeted the most viable of those candidates for support. There is no dearth of ego and ambition on the Right. Bill Maher famously said that Conservatives campaign on the thesis that government doesn’t work in order to get elected so they can prove themselves right. Being against something is much easier than being for something as observed by the late Democratic House Speaker, Sam Rayburn (D-Tx): “Any jackass can kick down a barn but it takes a real carpenter to build it.” Since the goal of the Moloch and its Masters is to gut and debilitate government oversight, controls and regulations, they actively seek politicians who champion ignorance and suspicion of government. In general the priority of the tagging follows this hierarchy.
| 1. Tagged for Destruction | Politicians who support strong governmental institutions, oversight and regulations of corporations and who are not easily intimidated, seduced or otherwise compromised |
| 2. Tagged for Neutering | Politicians who are compromisers and subject to intimidation by pressure groups and lobbyists; Evan Bayh is a good example of a malleable member of this class |
| 3. Tagged for Support | Hard Right-Wing ideologues who are hostile to government and feel that their job in public office is to get ‘government out of the way’ of business—which, of course, benefits the Corporate Masters |
The horde. For the Moloch to effect the change that the Acquisitors want, it has to have a horde of trolls that will spread out into the land and repeat the litany of the Acquisitors: ‘Government is the problem’.
The truth is, of course, that the government is “us” and is the only means by which ‘We The People’ can balance the power of giant corporations. As long as ‘We The People’ wage war with our own government, we remain at war with ourselves. Such self-destruction neutralizes the only checks and balances against corporate abuse that exists.
The Horde is critical to the absolute rule of the Acquisitors because “the People” provide ratification for the destruction of strong public institutions. This keeps the billionaires from having to bloody their own hands or the hands of their millionaire agents in congress; the Horde will shamble onto the Commons and do the work for them.
Dick Armey, Friedrich Hayek, Contract on America, Citizens for a Sound Economy, FreedomWorks, The Tea Party Nation and Town Hall Health Care Massacres.
Few have had more of an impact on American politics than Richard Armey, former Congressman from Texas D-26. Armey is an economist with a PhD from the University of Oklahoma and a proponent of Milton Friedman, Friedrich Hayek and free market economic determinism. When Armey became a politician (first elected to the House of Representatives from Texas 26th District), his public policy initiatives reflected those theories. Whether consciously or unconsciously, the influence of Hayek (8 May 1899 – 23 March 1992) seems evident. Dr. Hayek became entangled in the foundational debates over Great Britain’s Margaret Thatcher’s Conservative Party, just a few years before Armey himself decided to enter politics.
In 1978 Hayek came into conflict with the Liberal Party leader David Steel who claimed that liberty was only possible with “social justice and an equitable distribution of wealth and power, which in turn require a degree of active government intervention” and that the Conservative Party were more concerned with the connection between liberty and private enterprise than between liberty and democracy. Hayek claimed that a limited democracy might be better than other forms of limited government at protecting liberty “.[7]
Then in an ironic foreshadowing of what could describe ‘Tea Party Democracy”, Hayek adds: “…but that an unlimited democracy was worse than other forms of unlimited government because “its government loses the power even to do what it thinks right if any group on which its majority depends thinks otherwise”[8]
Dick Armey helped to deliver the Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001, otherwise known as Bush Tax Cuts 1. Through his connections with the Koch Brothers, conservative funders of ‘think-tanks’ that provide intellectual fodder and talking points for their allies, Armey was hired to run the Citizens for a Sound Economy, which was funded by the Koch Brothers with millions of dollars to hire academic mercenaries to produce hundreds of white papers on every subject important to the Acquisitors.
Under Armey’s leadership, Citizens for a Sound Economy developed a novel method of boosting its membership and revenues. Through an affiliation with a Republican businessman named J. Patrick Rooney, purchasers of insurance policies also paid for membership in Citizens for a Sound Economy. This practice carried over to FreedomWorks, when CSE changed its name. Only after Rooney and FreedomWorks were sued in a class-action lawsuit that was settled out of court, did the practice end[9].
In his service to his Masters, Armey helped lobby for Bush Tax Cuts 2 and then, in the shell of FreedomWorks, Armey push for tax reform, School choice, Welfare Reform, Social Security privatization, and the Flat Tax. But the real organizational hand of Dick Armey has been seen in this election cycle in association with the Tea Party Patriots. Army recycled his Contract FOR America and called it Contract FROM America. FreedomWorks organized boot camps for the Tea Party movement, spent $10 M on materials and support targeting town hall protests against the Health Care reform. This latter activity cost Armey his job with the lobbying and legal firm DLA Piper, whose clients had hired the firm to lobby FOR health care reform. Leaving DLA Piper was no big deal to Armey; it left more time for his real job: deliver the Horde for the Moloch.
The handbook distributed by FreedomWorks to the Tea Party network includes instructions on disrupting meetings: “Pack the hall. Yell out and challenge the Rep’s statements early. Get him off his prepared script and agenda. Stand up and shout and sit right back down.” The memo continued, “The Rep [representative] should be made to feel that a majority, and if not, a significant portion of at least the audience, opposes the agenda of Washington.”[10]
After CNBC Editor, Rick Santelli’s ‘Rant heard round the world’ on February 19, 2009 from the Floor of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange bitching about the Obama Administration’s plan to refinance home mortgages, FreedomWorks’ Eric Odom just magically created a facebook page and a website taking up the clarion whine of Santelli and the rest, as they say, is history. ChicagoTeaParty.com came into existence 12 hours later and by February 20th, Fox News was all akimbo over the ‘Tea Party Rallies’
FreedomWorks was involved in the financing and support of the April 15, 2009 Tax Day protests, and scores of Tea Party rallies around the nation between April 15 and July 4, 2009 including the Independence Day Rallies around the nation.
FreedomWorks was involved in the training and planning for the protests held during the Town Hall meetings on Health Care reform. They were involved in the Taxpayers March on Washington in September, 2009 and the first Tea Party Convention in January 2010.
As these gatherings and protests matured, the scope of the attacks fell generally along the lines of Mr. Army’s Contract From America: “Less Government, lower taxes, more freedom.” This is, indeed, the litany of the Acquisitors.
Come Together Right Now, Over Me…
As 2010 rolled on, the political season took on greater importance in the minds of all. The Tea Party movement despite general public misgivings embraced the Citizens United decision. The FreedomWorks and Tea Party Nation networks lauded the opinion in a briefing paper. This despite the obvious fact that the decision had the potential to conflict with the very ‘liberties’ that the ‘movement’ made its priority.
Here in Alaska, even the Wasilla Patriots sent a letter in February of this year to all the media, and local governmental politicians demanding unlimited political speech in the April, 2010 municipal election in which they were planning to support like-minded candidates. They must have gotten their memo from Dick Armey that Citizens United is good for liberty-loving Americans (LaLas). Now LaLas can attack all levels of government at will and clean house and replace them with patriots!
Anyway, the Taggers were at work and FreedomWorks endorsed Marco Rubio in Florida, Pat Toomey , Mike Lee and Rand Paul. Moloch took note. Crossroads USA immediately gave $250,000 to Rubio[11] and similar levels of support are expected from the others, post-election reporting.
The horde has been unleashed and they supported all of these candidates, all of whom won, raising the Republican gain in the Senate to 5.
The total estimate of money spent during this election cycle will be $4 Billion. Much of that money spent on negative ads attacking opponents. Nearly corporations hiding under the cloak of Citizens United will have spent 30% of that money. Next year the totals will be even greater. This year, we learned about Target and Best Buy contributing to a Republican candidate supporting anti-gay positions. We learned about it because the corporations donated to a traditional PAC with reporting requirements. Next year they will be smarter, they will donate through an aggregator with an IRS (c) 4 status and they won’t have to disclose.
The Lesson Learned.
Kill Moloch. Destroy the godless, soulless corporate influence in our elections. It is the popular thing to do[12] it is the moral thing to do (all speech is not equal) and it is the sane thing to do (corporations are not human). We have learned the power of the unlimited corporate money in political campaigns to bait, bully, browbeat and boggle the consciousness of the average citizen. Brilliant manipulators like Karl Rove and Dick Armey who serve the interests of the corporation over the citizen will continue to lie cheat and steal elections with impunity as long as they have the power to control the media.
How else can we explain a plastics manufacturer’s ability to convince a majority of the good citizens of Wisconsin that he is a better guardian of their civil liberties than Russ Feingold? Feingold was the only Senator to vote against the USA-PATRIOT Act that conservative and liberal scholars both agree violates our civil liberties. So what is the greatest danger to freedom and liberty—even greater than terrorism– from which Feingold’s opponent will protect the Badger State? You guessed it: Health Care Reform.
There is no other priority greater than campaign finance reform. That is the lesson from Election 2010.
[1] See http://electionlawblog.org/archives/014890.html and http://volokh.com/2009/12/14/where-is-citizens-united/
[2] http://tinyurl.com/2fq2g9f
[3] http://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/08-205.ZC1.html
[4] http://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/08-205.ZX.html
[5] Justice Stevens, et al, ibid.
[6] http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/09/us/politics/09thomas.html
[7] ^ secured from Wikipedia Entry at ^ “Letters to the Editor: The dangers to personal liberty”, The Times (11 July 1978), p. 15.
[8] ibid
[9] http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/22/AR2006072200683.html
[10] ^ Debates Turns Hostile, New York Times, August 8, 2009
[12] In a Washington Post-ABC News poll in early February 2010 it was found that roughly 80% of Americans were opposed to the January 2010 Supreme court’s ruling. The poll reveals relatively little difference of opinion on the issue among Democrats (85 percent opposed to the ruling), Republicans (76 percent) and independents (81 percent)
Actually if you think about it we control the big corps. We buy their products and enrich them.Lets stop this practice and try to find products that are more friendly .(If enough of them exist) I would be happy if we could zero in on the Koch’s. Recently I’ve seen lists of products the Koch’s produce.The next couple of days I’m going to do an inventory of goods I buy and eliminate them from my grocery list! Also I’m going to tally the yearly cost to the Kock’s.I’m only one .Envision millions of like minded folks doing the same.They want to control us ? Lets turn the tables!
Wow.
Excellent.
I was born & raised in the Republican Religion. I left the Church many, many years ago for the exact reasons you delineate. Oddly (to me) the uneducated in my family still believe as Republican and still work to obtain every government entitlement out there. The pretzel logic and energy it takes to live that way is most exhausting for me to watch.
Elstun, I think people usually tell us when they wish us harm, and tell us why. In this election, I am struck by how much better Alaska Natives understand Anglos. Alaska Native corporate leadership clearly understood the danger to their corporations, cleary saw the opportunity in front of them, and acted. For the paltry sum of $100K each, less than they would pay for a single lobbyist, they now own a U.S. Senator. The ANCSA corporations own that Senator precisely at the moment when they need her the most, in defense against another Senator, Claire McCaskill (D). Moreover, in helping Murkowski win, the ANCSA corporations created the equivalent of a Joe Lieberman, where her ability to leverage votes as an Independent awards her with more power than her seniority. The dispassionate observer has to stand in awe of the ANCSA executives’ insight and action. Very, very well played. No criticism is implied of the ANCSA corporations here. I am genuinely in awe of their insight.
In my immediate neighborhood in south Anchorage, on a circle of 10-year old middle class housing steadily filling with immigrant families from around the Pacific Rim (good neighbors, all), I am struck by the number of small corporations owned by these families. As recent immigrants to America, they quickly understand the Anglo culture around them, and they form corporations of family interest through which they build economic well-being, political power, and a framework for interacting with the community around them. These immigrant families implicitly share your understanding of American life right now, Elstun, and they act on it. The result is a neighborhood of small C corps, S corps, and LLCs, salted with a few sole proprietorships. These immigrant families, once a natural constituency of the Democratic Party, are voting Republican. They understand the rules and they are voting self-interest.
In terms of real political and economic power, corporations small and large now have more power and obtain more direct results from our system of government than any individual acting alone as a citizen. The two vignettes above support your point of view, Elstun, in terms of corporations being pervasive, but not to label all corporations as “…godless, soulless…” etc. In fact, most corporations, in all their varieties are small businesses, which by the way, is the fastest growing economic sector in Alaska both in numbers and revenue. Most family-based commercial fishermen today are commercially organized as corporations, and in that organization preserve both their economic well-being, enable political expression, and preserve family traditions. I own a small corporation representing the business interests of my extended family (many households) and it certainly is not some souless entity. I do not currently use all my corporation’s recently defined powers to contribute to political campaigns, but frankly, given the revised American political game, perhaps I should.
Knowing you, Elstun, this is the gentlest of criticisms, because I know the kind of corporation you mean and the awful manner in which they behave. Still, we need to be careful. Small family-owned businesses remain the economic backbone of our country.
Of all the Democratic candidates, Ethan Berkowitz came the closest to understanding this change which has rolled through our political and economic system, and came the closest to a position which, if properly supported by the entire Alaska Democratic Party, might have actually won a statewide political contest. But, the Alaska Democratic Party leadership chose not to support the Berkowitz – Benson ticket, leaving good candidates stranded. If the Alaska Democratic Party continues down its current course, which seems to be anti-corporate environmental activism, it runs the risk of becoming irrelevant. Darwin rules.
Well said — corporations can be the fisherman that catches your halibut, your neighbor that gives piano lessons, or a family restaurant. Not every corporation is a huge, profit-oriented machine. Just like people are special snowflakes with unique motivations, corporations have diverse goals and means. Honestly, if you run any sort of sizable small business then you are FOOLISH for not incorporating, even if it is a corporation of one. The corporate business structure is generally superior to a sole proprietorship when it comes to taxation and protection of personal assets from liability. That doesn’t make it soulless, evil, or solely driven by profits.
Polarbear and Chris – 200, heck, even 2,000 ‘small’ corporations, funding pooled together, *cannot* match the funding power of even one large corporation. To suggest *all* corporations should be allowed to ‘pay for’ their goals because it would benefit the ‘small’ corporation to be able to do so, is ludicrous. Endorsing a candidate or position is one thing, buying it is something else, again, entirely.
Let’s say I belong to WQY Corporation, pay my dues, and am active in furthering its running, interests, and issues. Now let’s say WQY has decided, as a corporation, to endorse the position that *only* Baptist houses of worship can operate within the city and within a 50-mile radius of it. I have heartburn with that position, but if that’s what the majority have decided, I’m fine with them lending their words in support of it – their words of endorsement are OK by me. I can use *my* words to voice opposition. What I am *not* fine with, is them using *my* dues to pay for that position being promoted.
The ANCSA corporations ‘lucked out’ this time with the vote results — thay bought and paid for a candidate that will ‘pay’ them back…but it’s a damned slippery slope, they’re on. By endorsing a candidate and/or position with *corporation money*, they’ve done nothing but shown that $$ talks. They’d better enjoy basking in the glory of the ‘win’ while they can. Why? Because there will always, Always, Always be a *larger* corporporation just waiting in the wings with *more* money to BUY results they want. So much for self-determination and an ‘equal’ voice amongst/because of the corporations and their money…that notion is a fallacy.
A corporation(s) going for immediate results at the expense of *future* results, is absurd. Back to the example of the only Baptist Houses of worship being allowed — a position that won because the Corporation WQY *paid* for its passage…what if the Methodists show up and say they want to build, at no cost to anyone in the city, a sports center, a new airport, a hospital, a modest house of worship for those who wanted to attend, and oh, yeah, they want to totally rewire the city for electricity and for wi-fi internet access. Ooops. sorry, Methodists, our corporations voted to not allow such. *Individuals* within those corporations voiced –with their strongly voiced *words*– opposition to it, but the corporations had way more *money* to pass it than the individuals did, to defeat it. It’s the law, now, bought and paid for by the corporations, that you can’t come to this town.
Being short-sighted, IMHO, is no reason to continue -or excuse– the built-in and inescapable absurdity of NON-individuals *paying* for candidates and/or issues. beth.
All good points, Beth. Unfortunately, Supreme Court decisions have a way of hanging around for many years before a challenge is mounted. I suspect the court rulling will be with us for many election cycles. The ruling will be difficult to challenge, because well-financed large corporate interests will file to defend the rule. What large corporations do is way beyond my pay grade, as you say.
That said, our Alaska neighborhoods are changing. We have become more multicultural than ever. More small businesses of the corporate form haved started, and they represent extended family commercial interests, among all cultural groups. The secondary and tertiary economic growth we have wanted for decades is starting to happen, right now. Alaska small business is the fastest growing economic sector in numbers and revenue right now, and that growth is coming from our own neighborhoods. This trend is our new middle class emerging. Within 20 years, we are going to look like a little Vancouver. This is a natural constituency for the Alaska Democratic Party. The party should be getting ahead of the curve and learning what these families and neighborhoods want. They are voting Republican right now. The corporation rules can and should work in the favor of the Alaska Democratic Party at the small business and local neighborhood level. Imagine a superfund, Alaska Family Restaurants Standing Together, contributing to Democratic candidates, or a Cordova Family Fishermen Standing Together superfund. We have to adapt.
So, why did the Alaska Democratic Party not support the Berkowitz – Benson ticket? Ethan understands this change in our community very well. What happened?
Thank you for the discussion, Beth.
FREEDOM OF ASSEMBLY: Nobody forces you to belong to a corporation. Generally, corporate owners do not pay “dues” to a corporation. Owners own shares, whether that is a significant percentage or all of them (as in a small business) or a small fraction (for most common stock investors). You can divest yourself of your shares if you don’t want your resources (money) to be associated with what you consider to be inappropriate corporate governance. For example, if you don’t like smoking… Don’t buy Altria stock. The same goes for the political positions of corporations you have an ownership stake in. Welcome to freedom of assembly. Or, even better, at the next shareholder’s meeting, you vote the current board of directors out!
INCUMBENTS HAVE LOTS OF ADVANTAGES: Money cannot directly buy elections or candidates. Money may buy votes, and then votes buy elections. However, there are many ways to buy votes. As things stand, incumbents have an advantage when it comes to many of them. Incumbents have access to significant electoral advantages, such as an establish staff, franking privileges, casework, free travel to visit their constituents, name recognition, ability to funnel government spending to supporters, and media access. The incumbency advantage is pretty well documented in American political science literature.
CAMPAIGN FINANCE LAWS FAVOR INCUMBENTS: Injecting more money into campaigns tends to favor challengers . That is, campaign finance laws tend to favor incumbents, which is probably why they are supported by many legislators. For example, do you think anyone could mount a credible campaign to challenge Don Young without a huge infusion of cash? Even in ’08, when Don Young was plagued by scandals and stripped of seniority, he still beat Berkowitz by a healthy 5% margin.
BIG PICTURE: In the bigger picture, I suppose I view the ability of the government to arbitrarily restrict free speech as more dangerous than the possible negative influence of money. I can agree that full disclosure rules are appropriate; I can be persuaded that limiting foreign influence in elections is proper; but I don’t think the potential benefits of keeping incumbents in office longer are worth the downsides of restricted free speech for US persons, whether those persons act individually or collectively.
I think that as long as the government is perceived as being worth controlling, ambitious entities will strive to control it for a variety of reasons (crush your competitors with legislation or regulation, personal aggrandizement, whatever). Most campaign finance laws just build a dam; the insatiable pressure to control the government will just be diverted around the barriers, driven underground, break through loopholes, or flow over the top. The better solution would be to make government power less valuable to seize, in which case the pressure gets turned down.
Cheers,
Chris
I’m sorry- I so often agree with you but my Regional Corporation joining Alaskans Standing Together torched my shorts.
It has blurred, yet again, the line between tribal government and the for-profit ANCs.
Yes, and I still read and value your posts. A question. If the Supreme Court ruling is true for commercial corporations, then is it also true for nonprofit corporations. Do nonprofit corporations also have the same rights as individuals to contribute to political campaigns? How should that work?
Citizens United is/was a 501(c)4 non -profit. As long as it is not the organization’s primary purpose it may lobby and participate political campaigns. The kicker here is that this type of non profit is under no obligation to publically disclose who donates to them.
Also , personally, Citizens United’s stated objectives are pretty shaky as far as qualifying as a social welfare org but apparently IRS buys it all.
501(c)3s- which churches and many tribal organizations are may not lobby or participate in elections…
Then there are the (c)6s like the Chamber of Commerce.
Non- profits, depending on their particular exemption type have an uneven ability to participate in contributions to campaigns
So , no, they do not have the same rights as an individual to contribute to political campaigns- nor even the same rights in relation to other types of non-profits.
I’m not sure how many folks know that the Regional ANCs have a closed stock setup.
Shareholders at the beginning were all qualifying Alaska Natives born in 1971 or before.
There’s lots of talk about what original intent might have been as far as shareholders’ ability to sell stock after 20 ( I think ?) years but shareholders pretty much all bound their ANCs to maintain stock which could only pass to descendants or relatives. After 20 years the option to issue a second class of stocks to those born after 1971 was made available- some have , some have not. Mine has not. The second class of stocks, if my memory is correct, expires upon the death of the shareholder.
So at this point, nearing 40 years after ANSCA, we have a very uneven distribution of Regional Corporation stock in the Native community . We have 2 generations of young people who are on the wind as far as being part of a Reg- if someone gifts or wills them primary stock they are shareholders of original shares, if their Reg has issued the second type they may be shareholders…
Yet, the Regs continue behave as if they represent all Alaska Natives.
It is a pain.
As Mr Lauesen points out below, there is no guarentee that shares will stay in the community indefinitely and from my POV the blows to tribal governments possible with the legislated inclusion of the Regs in the federal nation to nation picture is a disaster waiting to happen.
I am glad your neighbors are doing well and making use of ways to use basic corporate law to organize their business activities. But the use of corporate structure in ANCs , villages, CDQs and the like has real problems which the structure cannot even meet- let alone solve.
Do you know about the for-profit feeders to the CDQ non-profits requests to be exempt from income tax since they are feeders? Or supposed to be…?
I hear you regarding ANCSA corporations and AFN and CDQs claiming to represent all the interests of Alaska Natives. Those relationships need rebalancing, a rebalancing which can only come from the Alaska Native community. Despite these problems, and In your comments, I did not hear you say that ANCSA corporations should not defend their commercial interests, the same as any corporation. Well, they defended their interests brilliantly. In fact, other mid-sized to large non-ANCSA corporations realized they should have hopped onto the Alaskans Standing Together bandwagon, and simply were not light enough on their feet to do so. I know you are annoyed, Alaska Pi, and for good reason, but i hope you have a reserved a little quiet pride in their business acumen, because it really is remarkable.
There are thousands of Alaska Native-owned small businesses organized as corporations who are not of the ANCSA form. Actually they outnumber all the ANCSA corporate entities. We forget them because we do not see them. AFN does not represent those businesses at all. Those businesses should be the natural constituency of the Alaska Democratic Party. The Alaska Democratic Party should both see those businesses and give them voice, but they do not. There lies one way to improve the voice of Alaska Native citizens outside the ANCSA corporations.
If the Scalia decision holds for commercial corporations, then it should hold for 501(c)3 nonprofit corporations. Many of the 501(c)3 corporations provide essential lifeline services in Alaska. They deserve the ability to openly defend and advocate their missions in the political arena. Given Scalia, the regulations excluding these organizations from political contributions probably would not stand a challenge. If commercial corporations have the right to advocate and defend themselves politically, then non-profits should have the same rights. As you point out, many of the those 501(c)3 corps are tribal. Here lies one path to at least partly leveling the playing field for tribal non-profits. Again, here is a natural Alaska Democratic Party constituency.
Unfortunately, the current Alaska Democratic Party does not see these opportunities. In fact, the party refused financial support to the Berkowitz-Benson ticket, a campaign which was focused on growth opportunity for Alaska businesses. I don’t know about you, but it was not until after the election that I realized none of my contributions to the party were made available to Ethan and Diane. I do not know what it is up with the internals at the party. Whatever is going on, the Alaska Democratic Party is not in sync with neighborhood fundamentals in Anchorage, and the election results show it.
I have puzzled around about this all day.
1- I should say that I have been so mad that I didn’t make an important distinction about the Regional Corps’ Alaskans Standing Together thingy. They are a PAC- entirely different beastie than any of the corporate stuff we’ve been talking about here . They filed as an independant expenditure group certifying that they support/oppose more than one federal candidate. Presumably the 2 candidates they were against and the one they were for meets that requirement.
While they may have seen it as a good opportunity to end up with a Senator who would best represent their business interests , the literature I received from them was not about that… from my POV they were gaming the fear about Miller. That bothers me a great deal.
As regards the SBA 8a thingy- it needs to be adjusted so the mentor program cannot be abused and some caps put in place. My own Reg is part of a proposal to do part of that. Whether they own Ms Murkowski, presuming she wins, is another issue which rankles. Reg Corp business is often at odds with tribal government business and the tribes do not have equal standing- period.
2- Here’s the most succinct and collected info I could find as a reference that discusses non profits and their ability to engage in political activity AND maintain their tax exempt status.
Unless federal law changes 501 (c) 3s will never be allowed to participate, 4s may do so within certain parameters and we all know about 6s.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/501(c)
As religious groups and their churches are 501(c)3s , any attempt to change this part of the law would be wild and very, very unlikely to happen.
3- I have managed a small independant business for many years now. The owner and I worked hard to develop a business to be proud of and I think we have done a pretty decent job of it. We dropped affiliation with the chamber of commerce because of a prevailing set of attitudes which we think don’t serve the community we are in and we have dropped affiliation with a couple other business league type groups who are pushing right-to-work laws , anti-healthcare reform, and related campaigns which we also do not think serve the community we live in. I know full well the burden of regulations and reporting and costs of all that stuff for small businesses. Big business has done nothing with their bigger stick to help us with sensible legislation with that kind of thing- but boy, far too many of them want us to jump on the bandwagon to kill unions, screw employees monetarily, etc…
NO respect coming from me on that stuff…
4- I have to say I do not donate dollars to our state D party as they are out of touch with Southeast pretty much too 🙂 I donate to campaigns directly.
5- In the end, I would like to see hefty campaign finance reform … I think we need to be very wary of what Mr Lauesen calls the Molloch and we need to be wary of what we get from our so -called leaders of all sorts… business or no…
aaaah, Polarbear. How can I argue with your logic. Of COURSE there are wonderful enterprises that are incorporated and support/sustain the best of the human spirit.
These are not the beneficiaries of the Scalia Ruling, however. The consequences of the Acquisitors’ worldview will be the following:
1. The Rich get richer. Increase tax breaks for the largest corporations doing business as multinationals. This will force down the shift-share tax burden to the middle-class and the small businesses;
2. The Big get bigger. Rules governing consolidation and requirements for competition will be repealed. This will put the corporations you discuss at a competitive disadvantage and the most competitive of the small corporations will be acquired;
3. ANCSA Corporations will be acquired, along with the lands and resources they own. Stock alienation will continue apace but changes to the law protecting the corporations will be changed by the Acquisitors allowing acquisition.
All of this may take a decade or more but, if the political system is controlled by the Acquisitors, it will be inevitable.
You can arm-wrestle my logic any time. As we both very well know, just because something is logical does not mean it is rational, which is why we both need discussion.
What I see in front of me at the beginning of each day is my family, my business, my street, my neighborhood, and my community. We are at the base of the pyramid of culture, economics, and politics. If my local political party is relevant and connected and vibrant, then we get to participate effectively in local government. As we generate results and become relevant, then we grow to participate in state and national government.
I am distrustful of visions which are not grounded locally, in the space right in front of my eyes. Those visions have a dangerous habit of becoming ideologies, and therein lies the eventual derailing from relevance, the fate which awaits the Tea Party. I am more interested in mechanics – how things work – and building a systematic understanding from the ground up; the simple acts of getting things done. Right now, the Alaska Democratic Party is distracted, off somewhere, and has lost touch with the change and the new mechanics of our community. My neighbors are middle class, largely happy and hopeful, and most are small business owners. They are not full of doom and gloom, they are happy to be here, they are doing well, … and they are not Democrats.
So, Elstun, please get this corporation funk out of your system, please do not alienate the vital small corporation owners in our community, shed the post-election nightmare, and get back to some good old Tip O’Neil local political organizing. We just need to reconnect, not reformulate a world vision. We need you back in good spirits, man.
Excellent article, once again, Elstun. Thank you. beth.
The only candidates for me are the ones that are mad to live mad to love who blah blah blah like a thousand roman cadles exploding like spiders across the sky or something and everyone goes waaahhh…
…what about the Unicorns, John? What about the f**king UNICORNS?
That is Just the best way to end my day. “Unicorns” I bet they were cross eyed.
Excellent exposition, Elstun. And what a dynamic discussion it engendered. My biggest concern is that the call to action is so difficult to even get off the ground given the magnitude of the solution: a Constitutional Amendment. While Congress may nibble at this around the edges (not now, when the House has gone Rethug), only an amendment will actually be able to reverse corporate personhood. That is a huge hurdle to overcome and the task of garnering public support of what is viewed as an esoteric issue is astronomical.
Nyankoye ‘s comments that bring this issue into international focus increases the complexity of the challenge. I hope the next generation is up to it, because I doubt it will be resolved in my lifetime.
I agree…see my discussion at 26.1 (above)
Until we elect our President based on the votes of the public I won’t call this country we live in a “Democracy”. Power to the People? Yeah, right, not.
I’m with you Physic Mom!!
http://act.boldprogressives.org/sign/petition_olbermann/?akid=2654.720636.zjxwpy&rd=1&source=e2-share&t=3
this is the link to support Keith Obermann
Nice rant, but unfortunately, one of the premises — that Citizens United opened the floodgates for money to be funneled exclusively to Republican candidates — just ain’t true.
The money race totals come to $856 million for the Democratic committees and their aligned outside groups, compared to $677 for their Republican adversaries, based on figures compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics.
Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1010/44216.html#ixzz14YoDXVWJ
Both sides take enormous amounts of corporate money. I think it is more likely that this is a cyclical phenomenon: some years the Dems rake in more money, and sometimes the Repubs do.
I’m libertarian minded so I sympathize with your outrage. However, I don’t think you can prevent corporate speech in this country because of that pesky bill of rights thing. Remember — a corporation is just a collection of shareholders (often US citizens) acting for their collective combined interest. Rather than implementing prior restraint on political speech by these collective entities, I’d much prefer stronger disclosure rules. Government does have a legitimate role in ensuring transparency and free flow of accurate information.
Although, there already is some disclosure. Each ad has to name who paid for it. You can then google the name or hit up Open Secrets to follow the money trail. It isn’t that hard for anyone with computer access to trace the dough.
Three things:
1. Bill of Rights were not intended for ‘ships at sea’ or corporations. Neither has the capacity for ‘remorse’ or ‘conscience’ which provides the ground for ‘common law consideration’ of the rights of Englishmen. Remember Locke, Hume, and Rousseau were bedeviled by the issue of collective vs individual sovereignty (which is also a fundamental issue affecting libertarian thought/philosophy) and ‘sentience’ was critical to the debate.
2. The Supreme Court violated procedure by raising an issue not before them in Citizens United. This is legislating from the bench and should be a cause for congressional reprimand (which may be done via resolution);
3. You ‘non-partisan’ theory is cold comfort when the issue is regulation and transparency. As a Libertarian, you are resistant to the notion of any collective (governmental) regulation of commerce, so the presumption that Citizens United is bad may not even by part of your world-view. My ‘tagging’ chart wasn’t partisan, it was doctrinaire. The goal of the Moloch is to install ideologues who are anti-government and maleable for their purpose of unfettered accrual of capital. You may, indeed, like this. The Plantation may appeal to you. I reject this. Back to the Enlightenment doctrines that underlie our Republic from a poet of those times: “No man is an island” We cannot stand alone. Our greatness as a nation is measured collectively based upon individual accomplishments, it is true but our greatness as individuals is often reflected in some contribution to our collective goals. Corporations do not care about either individual or collective goals. They want to concentrate and accrue capital. That is all they exist for and that is all they are good for.
Capitalism is not our collective goal. It is a means not an end. Citizens United blurs the distinction between human enterprise and the machinery that operates it. And to me that is a horrible, anti-human act.
You hit an essential point here. We all ask here, over and over, what are our neighbors thinking when they vote in what appears to us as against their best interests.
There has been a sociological shift in the last 30+ years ,as a human ethic has been replaced with a market ethic,which has had the effect of stranding the individual on an island, a huge break in tie to community . Market forces invade all realms of our life now and competing for jobs, space, and voice threaten our humanity.
Capiltalism is merely an economic method, it is not human anymore than corporations are.
When humans become abstractions in the eyes of their own institutions it is time to reformulate the institution.
“There has been a sociological shift in the last 30+ years ,as a human ethic has been replaced with a market ethic,which has had the effect of stranding the individual on an island, a huge break in tie to community ”
I think you’ve hit on a major effect but not necessarily the cause. May I suggest “Bowling Alone” (Putnam)? I found it to be a fascinating description of the fraying of American social fiber. Unfortunately the answers aren’t that easy. You can’t blame any one factor decisively, and pinning down correlation vs. causation is a difficult task in sociology. Television watching is actually one of the number one predictors for social disengagement. I really enjoyed the book and thought it shed a lot of light on the issues we face today.
The rest of your argument sounds like it is ripped right from Karl Marx’s theory of alienation; it isn’t necessarily wrong, but it has been examined extensively for many years. I believe his ideas have also been tried out in practice a few times. ;).
Bottom line — I think it is too simple to simply blame all social disintegration on the possible alienation of strict capitalism.
LOL-
looking back at my midnight ramble I can see a variety of leaps to a hasty conclusion type problems but quite frankly I haven’t the time this morning to sort them all out. I have to go to work shortly.
I think looking at your other comments this morning that we disagree fundamentally .
I am minded when I look at these issues more of Erik Erikson’s notions of insight and responsibility than anything else.
His notion of the success of adolescence transitioning successfully into adulthood in the trapeze act – that the perception by the adolescent of a safe catch by society on the far end is as important as the actual catch…that there is a real place for that person and that they know that.
And Ortega’s notion of hope of heroism being fundamental to humanity…
And somewhere in all this Plato’s old, old Allegory of the Caves still speaks to me…
Also, I’m not sure we are witnessing a decay of American social fiber…
I think we are in danger of chucking out very important things but America really has no claim to have had a moment of arrival for all it’s people.
The battle for inclusion has marked our history from the beginning.
“Corporations do not care about either individual or collective goals. They want to concentrate and accrue capital. That is all they exist for and that is all they are good for. ”
– Brady Campaign to prevent Handgun Violence (Formally Handgun Control, Inc): 501(c)(4)
– National Rifle Association: 501 (c)(4)
– Salvation Army: 501(c)(3)
– Red Cross: 501(c)(3)
– Carnegie Corporation of New York (funds libraries and other literacy enhancing projects)
A 501(c) is a corporation formed not-for-profit. Not every corporation is strictly a for-profit enterprise!
Likewise, while most business-oriented corporations do seek to return maximum value to their shareholders, many corporations also have other goals. Some seek to create LONG TERM value for the shareholder as opposed to quick profits. Often times that means investing in human and social capital. Privately held companies have no shareholders to answer to at all and serve the whims of their primary private holders, which may or may not be oriented towards monetary profits. Shareholders who have become wealthy often channel immense wealth into lasting foundations such as the previously mentioned Carnegie foundation, or the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation.
Would it be fair to say that you seek to restrict the political activities of only “for profit” corporations, not 501(c)s? If so, what is the distinction? If all corporate entities lack the capability for remorse or conscience because they are collective and not individual entities, then what makes a 501(c) different from any other corporation?
Then, throw another wrench into it. What about a corporation with only one or two family shareholders (for example, a small family business which has incorporated for the tax and legal protections offered by the LLC structure)? How is it that John Smith is entitled to free speech, protection of property against unreasonable search and seizure, and so on, but John Smith, Inc, is not? After all, the corporate veil can be pierced to hold John Smith accountable if John Smith, Inc engages in criminal behavior.
Just some random thoughts on public financing:
How much money do we pour into obsolete weapons systems, failed security fences, and counter-productive foreign adventures? I’d much rather see some of those funds used to support an even playing field for national campaigns and it would ensure that our elections were paid for by American tax-payers. A similar approach could be used by states and localities.
Public financing would limit the amount of advertising — a blessing in my book I was ready to throw a brick through the television by the time this last election was over — it was relentless and annoying. I shudder to think of the number of trees that were sacrificed to support print materials, most of which went right into the trash or, hopefully at least, the recycling bin.
The system is broken and out of control. Public financing would do much to restore some sanity to the process.
I’m a Democratic Socialist so it’s easy for me to support public financing of campaigns.
“Although, there already is some disclosure. Each ad has to name who paid for it. You can then google the name or hit up Open Secrets to follow the money trail. It isn’t that hard for anyone with computer access to trace the dough.” ~ Chris from AK
This is presuming, Chris, that you can quickly read (or hear) and jot down the name of the entity paying for the ad…and then get to a computer to do the googles on it.
We’ve got, basically, 2 types of political ads now: Those the candidate endorses (“I’m John Doe and I approve this message”) and those the [specific] candidate(s) do not (“Paid for by ____ and not endorsed by any candidate.)
“Candidate John Doe”, I know; “Friends of Candidate John Doe”, I know — when they run (and pay for) the ad, identify their self/org., I know who/what entity is footing the bill.
“United Patriots for America”, “Patriots United for America,” “United Patriots of America,” “American Patriots United,” “Moms For Motherhood,” … umm, not so much.
And the booger of it is, when Candidate is identified, I can hold Candidate responsible for what the ad says (which was the whole point of the ‘I approve’ stuff, in the first place); when the ad is from who-knows-who, all I can do is yell at the TV or radio: “That is NOT true!”
Even more of a booger, you *know* the ads from who-knows-who are much appreciated by Candidate — the ads are, 99-times-out-of-100, a complete slam of the opponent, but without the “I endorse” from the Candidate, said ‘innocent’ Candidate can feign total ignorance and get away with all manner of utter bs.
Our 4-term US Rep fell prey to this ‘innocence’…the ‘not endorsed’ ads were so ugly, so mean, so Pelosi-Reid-Obama filled, that he [for G-d know what reason] made ‘response’ ads in which he touted how much of a DINO he really was. Not only was he unable to convince the Rs and TBers that he would continue to act in their best interest (and, he really did – he was very good for the area, voting as the constituents would have him vote) he also lost all of this former base, the Dems [vote]. ‘We’ elected, instead, a real yahoo to his seat — a man so conservative, there’s only a couple of millimeters between him and the end of the measuring stick for ‘conservatism.’ I’m greatly a’feared for us. beth.
Your fundamental thesis seems to be:
“The typical voter is unable or unwilling to type the name of the advertising group into OpenSecrets.Org or Google in order to see how the ad was bankrolled, or if they are, they are unable to comprehend the significance of that information. Thus, they are easily manipulated by advertisements from groups whose agendas are not immediately transparent.”
If the voters are so gullible and easily manipulated by flashy or negative television advertisements, do you think that they should be allowed to vote? Removing the ads doesn’t solve the core problems of voters being uneducated on the issues, uninformed about the players involved on those issues, and unable or unwilling to apply any critical thinking or research skills to their civic duty. Those are all more complicated problems that have root causes which I believe tend to be related to education.
In these days of ubiquitous internet access, information is easier to get than ever before. I don’t have a smart phone but many of my coworkers do; it is easy to type in the name of a group right after you heard the ad and see who is bankrolling it (I saw someone do just that after one obnoxious one). Or, you can write something down with an old fashioned pen and pencil. PolitiFact rates ads for veracity of information. Of course, if you missed the group’s name, you can always hit up You Tube and download the content. Admittedly, not everyone has internet access and the ability to get to this information (although most public libraries now do…), but if you are posting here… You probably do.
This is one area where a more overtly partisan media might actually help. Left-leaning media sources would have a strong motivation to trace and hunt down facts about advertising campaigns for right leaning candidates and vice versa. Even relatively nonpartisan sources like PolitiFact do a decent job of that.
No, Chris, my contention is that the “Moms for Motherhood” (thanks, POTUS, for making up that one for us, it’s a gem!) tells me nothing about who is behind the ad. In any given one hour period on a channel, I’ve maybe 20-25 slam ads “Not endorsed by any candidate”; ads paid for by who-knows-who…*I* certainly don’t know who that who is — nor does most anyone else.
For me to find out ‘who’ is bankrolling the slam ad, I’ve got to catch the name (if I can) and do the googles on it; with 4 or 5 such ads during the ‘commercial break,’ I’d spend the entire break time writing down names and spend the time I’d otherwise be watching the show, doing the googles on them. That’s what they’re counting on — that viewers are watching because they’re interested in the show and they won’t forego the show to check on who is bankrolling the slams by doing the googles between commercials.
Besides which, even if I *do* find out that buried behind 40-layers of twists and turns, “Patriots for America” is nothing but a front for multi-billionaire conservative, Tom Newton, what good will that do? I can’t hold him accountable…even though his slam ad has poisoned the well. If *candidate* John Doe endorsed/ran the slam ad, that would be entirely different; I *could* hold him accountable and challenge *him* on the contents.
Let’s say “Patriots for America”, (AKA multi-billionaire conservative, Tom Newton,) runs a slam ad saying Candidate Frank Franco has not signed the “All Life is Sacred” pledge and *further* goes on to show 4 sets of pictures of Mrs. Franco, each photo in the set taken a week apart over the course of 2 years. In the first photo of each set, we see Mrs. Franco in a lose-fitting outfit; in the second, we see her in tight-fitting clothes. So, what is the viewer/voter to take away from those 4 sets of specifically-chosen pictures? You got it: Franco not only hasn’t signed the pledge, his wife!, herself!, has had 4 abortions! Blatantly untrue, totally absurd, completely false, but ‘out there’ in the public, nonetheless. The slam ad *infers* something by offering as ‘proof’ absolute nonsense. No matter *what* Franco does or says, the idea has been planted and he has *no* hope of changing the well-planted perception. *Even though* the voter knows, on a very sane and rational level of awareness, that Mrs. Franco did not have 4 abortions in 24-months as heavily implied by the ‘proof,’ there is still that niggling doubt *because* that doubt was well and intentionally planted. Franco’s opponent can just sit back and enjoy the ride.
The slam ads have *nothing* to do with the voter *not* being aware of the issues and of the candidates, they have *everything* to do with distracting, disrupting, and manipulating the vote. While I agree the media should track down the funding sources of the slam ads and let the public know who/what they are, that ain’t gonna happen – it’s too lucrative for them to run any and all ads. Short of the media *not* running in the first place slam ads, *not* running agenda-driven ads hidden behind benign-sounding “paid for by” names (yeah, like that’s gonna happen!), the public is flat-out being duped; once the ‘genie is out of the bottle’, you can’t get it back in. beth.
OT: Quincy Jones was in my best friend’s restaurant today for over 4 hrs. (here in Chicago!! great press for his place)
Carry on…. (in Tim Gunn’s voice)
Hah! Thanks for reporting! That IS impressive! Must be one helluva Resta-rant (in Lupe Fiasco voice)
Thanks Elstun. I will save this. And pass it on.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/27/republicans-were-for-obam_n_515743.html
worth a second look…
Very well done AKM. Thank you. 🙂
Mudflats,
Dive into the “A Pledge to America.” The Intro is brillant as in funny. Great pics. Easy read. Jobs is number one of this pledge and it explains their plans for the “repeal & replace of Health Care.” My fav references “arrogant, self-appointed elites, out-of-touch government.” I find it amusing that they are self-deprecating. Love the Constitution touch. Wouldn’t it be great if they were required to take a Constitution quiz and release it???
http://pledge.gop.gov/resources/library/documents/pledge/a-pledge-to-america.pdf
Abortion – the culture war issue of the decade:
http://litbrit.blogspot.com/2010/11/what-all-hot-air-boiled-down-to.html#links
But as we all know – not one Repub admin. has overturned Roe vs. Wade. They just yell pro-life to fire up the masses. Especially the easily led Christian Right. Plus – the babies already born? They’re on their own if they were proactive enough to be born to wealthy parents. No hand outs! Pull yourselves up by your bootstraps! Don’t have bootstraps cuz you can’t afford boots……erm…..STILL! No hand outs!
Were = Weren’t.
Good rant, I also admired your earlier one. These are all sound and solid points and though I might want to nitpick some or be the pedant over some, there are none that cry out for debate, except your very last sentence.
While it may well be true for the US, it is not true for the rest of the world, the 6.5 billion other people who are faced with similar problems and difficulties but who have no particular ability to influence how the US affects them. Yes it assuredly does.
To me it seems the key issue is one of comprehending citizenship. We are all citizens of our local communities, and of larger communities within still large communities ranging up to countries, and finally we are all citizens of the whole world.
Given the current conditions, even radical changes to the system of financing choice of government would have only slight and temporary effect. That important fact is compounded by the additional fact that the pendulum has swung so far to the right, thanks to the appointment of Bush as president, that substantive change is so unlikely as to pale the prospects for success in honest reform.
While the metaphor is appropos it is inaccurate in referring to Moloch, our enemy is oligarchy. Just as in the US a too significant fraction of people believe in superstitious nonesense and blatent propaganda lies, in the rest of the world there is a similar kind of self delusion that is centered on the dominant status of the US in the global scheme of things. It is only a matter of time until that self delusion evaporates. It is already happening and the rate at which it is happening is increasing.
There is one thing the oligarchy truly fears, and that is the fact that even all out war cannot cow the human spirit.
The lesson we should take away from the failed wars in Iraq and Afgahanistan is simply that war cannot change people’s minds.
The lesson we should take away from the last decade of obtuse denial is that reality is immune to persuasion or lies or obfuscation. The whole world is changing and at a pace that is difficult to keep up with even with diligence. Wasting such a huge amount of resources to support the peculiar and rather obscene immensity of the wealth of a few, against the dismal fortunes of everyone else is just in human.
@K.N.: I take your point about Oligarchy, but the metaphor of the Moloch is apt. Many parts may become an organism of single purpose. Cedar waxwings fly as a group in a formation that gives a predator (like a hawk) the impression that they are one large flying creature. So too the Oligarchy. Unfortunately, WE The People should be the waxwings moving in unison, through our governmental institutions, to protect ourselves from corporate abuse and power.
Your point about the changing environment that will not be changed by all of the obfuscation and game-playing that we do is an important point. A boat that is taking on water requires all hands on deck. Debating who is at fault or how the cost of the rescue should be allocated will not keep the ship from sinking.
Thank you.
Good point… maybe what we should do is get something that they understand…$$$ (you know play by their rules) hire a Lobbyist for “we the little people”! If everyone donated …well just a thought…
Sorry for replying to myself, but I just had visions of our “lobbyist” calling one of our reps to schedule an app…{I’d like to schedule time to see “We the People”…yes I represent “we the people”}
This is the kind of information that needs to be disseminated far and wide. Why weren’t the Democrats able to get control of the message? We really can’t let them win this fight.
This blog post from LitBrit explains partially why the Dems weren’t able to control the message:
http://litbrit.blogspot.com/2010/11/meet-floridas-next-governor.html#links
And partially because a lot of Dems lost their nerve and ran away from the accomplishments of the 111th Congress and President Obama. And now they’re out of a job.
You get what you voted for – example #1
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2010/11/6/917612/-Republicans-win-office,-kill-jobs-immediately
Didn’t take long. It’s only 4 days since the election and already it’s less about jobs, jobs, jobs and more about tax cuts for the wealthy, less government regulation of corporations and oh yes, more tax cuts for the wealthy.
Have to go, but just wanted to say: Thank You Elstun Lauesen, AKM and NPR (for the chart).
I hope this gets picked up by HuffPo. I hope Rachel reads it and likes it as much as we do, even if she can’t use it in her show.
I am sending the link to this post to people I most care about because it is that well done and important.
P,S, Hope everyone is still working to get Keith Olbermann back on the air! We need him as much as Rachel and AKM and all of our other favorite progressive Alaskan bloggers.
Thank you. I have worried for a long time that the United States is no longer “of the people and by the people” and that my vote has become meaningless.
My question for the legal minds here (Hi, Legal Eagle) is if corporations are now “people”, aren’t they now liable? Can they have it both ways? How will SCOTUS handle corporate lawsuits, now that SCOTUS owns the defining of them as people? Isn’t it just a matter of time before it bites them in the a$$ and they are ‘hoist by their own petard’ (thanks Shakespeare)?
Hasn’t SCOTUS set themselves (and corporations) up for some major losses if they don’t do a major reversal?
Hey Mud…. is that a cropped image of Todd??? Or it him AND the Swag-Hag??? Can’t tell thru the tears of laughing so hard….
The saddest election result of last Tuesday was the defeat of one of the most principled and decent men in Washington – Russ Feingold.
I second that!
Absolutely. A travesty.
Such irony there. Feingold is the ONLY member of the Senate to vote against the USA-Patriot Act & the millionaire who beat him called Health Care Reform ‘ the greatest threat to our liberty in history…” yeah. Sure. Whatever.
What does it say about the people of Wisconsin who voted FOR Johnson??!!!?
I couldn’t agree more. I’m hoping President Obama will bring him in to the administration. Would love to see him working with Elizabeth Warren on citizen (known these days as consumer) protections.
You got that right and I don’t approve of Walker either.I am still paying for a stadium that i have been to once in my life and will be paying till the day I die thanks to Tommy Thomson a republican who pushed it thru
How to get there from here??
This article needs to go out everywhere where there are at least thinking people. This whole SCOTUS decision is so very scary. Civics needs to be taught again in the schools. I think a lot of (make that most) of the young people today do no have any kind of understanding of how our government WAS supposed to work. When my Senator, yes McChinless, says his only goal is to make sure our President has only one term, that says alot. Can’t stand the man and now we have Rand Paul. At least Bunning was just ineffective. It is very embarrassing to live in a state like this. Where I live, many are horrified about the election. OK, enough for now.
Good article. Molech is also famous for human child sacrifice. How many have died in this “war on terror”? We need to stand up to corporations regardless of our own political affiliation. A truly grassroots group that is less than a year old seems to have some valid ideas. Check them out…
http://www.coffeepartyusa.com/
Also too…. How many have died because they have no health care or the out of pocket $ was too high because of high deductables, or the ones who did were rejected by their own insurance companies? Talk about “death panels”. Sheesh.
The insurance companies are already taking advantage.rates are going up and deductibles are also going up and I think thats one reason working people are afraid of the healthcare bill.They blame the raise in rates on it instead of the insurance companies and their bottom line.
Excellent post. Thank you.
Was just thinking of Howl the other day .., must be on the wind.
I’m hoping Americans will wake up before it is too late, but I’m not sure that as a nation we are wise enough to see the giant con game that is being perpetrated. The unholy alliance of fundamental Christianism and unbridled capitalism will be the death of this country unless we find a way to fight back.
Synchronicity at work! I agree, “something must be on the wind.” Hopefully it is as we hope — real change in the minds and hearts of Americans.
When Bush got elected, I looked up his astrological natal chart just for fun. Everything it came true as regards him: if he did not learn humility, his hubris would be his undoing. If he did not immerse himself in the spirit of bipartisanship, he would go down as one of the worst Presidents in our history.
However, I had hoped that the rest of the prediction would not come true: that if enough American bought into the Bush-Cheney, far-right, pro-business BS, we would come to great suffering that would last years. The chart said America would have to hit bottom before we corrected our course and swung back to moderation and sensibility – unless, by then, it was too late.
I saved that chart on my laptop for years. When the laptop died, so did that natal chart. I have not been able to find it again, but its message – one that I thought I’d read for a lark – haunts me now. Whoever did the analysis truly did strike some cosmic truth. Not that I follow astrology, but I do respect truth wherever I find it.
Hopefully, the wind is blowing change and will pick up speed before it does, indeed, become too late and we are all under the power of a few corporate decision makers.
It IS, as you say, “unholy”…
But who will be on the side of us.? It sure as hell ain’t the teaparty…!
I think that when people see that the party of no is still the party of no and nothing gets done they will be voted out.So far I have seen no one worthy of being our next president in the GOP no one at all.
Perhaps the very thing that they have been using to divide us could become the one thing that we can use to unite us.
Yes. Letter writing campaign to the red and blue states.
Somehow the people of the United States of America need to come together and insist on campaign finance reform. Now THAT would be something to take to the streets for.
It should be a basic goal of both conservatives and liberals!
Says a lot that McCain went against his own reform bill he had with Feingold.It was hard to see Wisconsin go republican this year and especially Johnson.He has done nothing for his workers.Herb Kohl bough a lot of new jobs to Wisconsin and he is a democrat.The republicans in the state did nothing,at least that i could see this time round
Nice…I have been wondering why there has been so little righteous concern over corporate personhood. It will be the eventual undoing of our democracy, make no mistake. Campaign finance reform should be the number one concern of all “true patriots”.
The fundamental question is how to pry “the horde” away from the corporatists. They claim to be against all of this and yet they are mindlessly supporting the very people who will eat their lunch and grin all of the way to the bank. How do “the people” fight back when all of our “representatives” have been bought and paid for?
I am OUTRAGED at the amount of money spent on this election, on both sides. People are starving and homeless all over the world. It is INSANE. This election was a HUGE stimulus package for all of the media outlets. It is INSANE.
I hear from more and more people, everyday, (from both sides of the fence) that our government is filled with crooks and rotten to the core. I thought that this is what the “teapartiers” were originally against. It sure got warped.
And Karl Rove should be in prison.
As for the SCOTUS? Also bought and paid for. An important reason to continue to support our present POTUS.
Oh, I so agree with on so many points – most particularly on the amoral Carl Rove. He should indeed be in prison. If I believed in Hell, I’d gladly advise an Almighty to make that happen. He has been responsible for some of the lowest power plays in American history – and that’s saying something. We’ve had crooks and slime around since the beginning, but he has proven himself to be most determined to set new records in nasty and self-absorbed manipulations. He doesn’t care about the country. He only cares about wielding power. Sorry – can you tell I do not like him?
I cannot condemn the entire Supreme Court, though, because it is only the five conservatives who manipulate the court’s procedures and subvert the true spirit of the law.
If I hear Justice Thomas say one more time that he is upset that the four moderate/progressive Justices should not ask questions during oral argument, my ears will shut down completely. He infuriates me with his mediocrity and his complete lack of understanding of why oral arguments are necessary.
If I see or hear Justice Scalia, the scum, smirk one more time as he sits through cases where he has vested or close connections to one of the parties I will scream so loudly everyone at mudflats will be able to pinpoint my exact location. Scalia refuses to recuse himself (as does Thomas) from hearing cases that he obviously is too close to one side to be fair. He should be brought up on ethics charges.
Alito is an idiot – an anal retentive soul whose sphincter muscles contract whenever fairness is required for the average American. You can see his face contract just as his – – – tightens. Roberts was handed the Chief Justice position after it became clear to Bush-Cheney that he could lead the charge for a pro-business court. He should have served for years before being given the position.
Justice Kennedy is weak and will follow the strongest faction.
That’s why is crucial that Obama gets another term. If the conservative Republicans get a President in the White House in 2012, the Supreme Court will be lost for generations. We have to replace a balance with one or two more moderates or progressives.
Justices can be taken off the court. I think Scalia is the best target for an investigation and I live in hope someone will have the courage to start one. It would restore honor to the Court if they could remove Justices who think themselves above ethics and protocol.
Sorry for the rant. It’s been building for far too long.
What a wonderful rant! You are well informed on matters of the court!
I didn’t know justices could be taken off the court! Has it ever been done before and how exactly could it happen?
Corporations are NOT people. Especially if “they” don’t bleed blood or pay their fair share in taxes.
Well-done…I enjoyed that….I had to re-read it…!
Damn straight! Loved it! ks sunflower… please feel free to do it more often because it sure made me feel better. Thanks!
Wouldn’t Clarence Thomas be subject to investigation because of the political activism of his wife Ginni, Tea Party leader? His attendance at Koch brothers gathering to promote corporate interests?
He should be impeached if that is possible
I have to agree with you. I have been watching these people from all states and all parties and thought if only half of what they spent went to charity or people on a slippery slope we would get somewhere but every one is for them selves.Palin does no good with her millions.The two from California spent millions and millions and the state is bankrupt.That money could have been better spent.Our President gave his winnings to charity and a lot of these rich folks could have done the same but have not .When I came back from Alaska after the family members i had up there had passed I tried to explain how different the small churches up there were.Not the big red shirt ones but the smaller ones with smaller congregations.I told people I wished we had more of those ministers down in the lower 49.
Very well said. What an excellent post.
Thanks for this great, informative piece.
I agree with the line “Where is all the handwringing on the right about activist judges?”
I’ll tell you where it is – it is in places like Iowa where it was used to drum the Iowa Supreme Court justices out because of their ruling on equal rights for all people.
Where was all the handwringing on the right when the US Supremes elected W?
Wake up, people.
I said it before, and I’ll say it again – one has to laugh at the outrage in Alaska about the US Supreme’s ruling on the Exxon Valdez damages – you get what you vote for. You reap what you sow.
Alaska’s Constitutional Founders were wise enough to avoid the direct election of Judges. A peer board determines who is qualified and forwards the list to the Governor for appointment. Once the nominee is appointed by the Gov, it is submitted to the legislature for hearings and approval or rejection. Once appointed, the judge must be retained every 4 years by popular vote.
Thank you for this very informative post. This is all so wrong on so many, many levels.
Agreed. I think a couple of things to remember is that even though there was a heavy influence of foreign funds, the Dems had a treasure trove. This is about the economy. A person out of job and wondering how to pay bills and feed a family is a powerful thing. I believe the President had heart and stayed on his agenda but the problem was that people were facing major loses. Folks in Louisiana, Florida, all over the United States. They needed a little bit more of that “hope” and a lot more cash. I believe that a balanced government is not a bad thing. I actually love Republicans (being a Dem myself). Boring place if we all thought the same. Frustrating but reality.
If we are going to play the Corporate game, we can’t forget the only thing missing is a leather jacket with their current sponsors. Politics and money go hand and hand, this is not a one-sided story, people like winners. I applaud those that serve but I think they get jaded. If we are going to start with anything first. Put food on the tables of the people who need a job. Jobs, Jobs, Jobs as our fine friends have said. Then Repeal Don’t Ask…Immigration, while making health care reform better (aka health care reform). Please Mr. President. Remind the R’s “if it is broken, fix it!” I am ready to hear about how they are going to cut the budget with out impacting Social Security and Medicare? They are back and have something to prove. If they thought the TParty was grass roots, gramps and grams everywhere will be tearing down the house. Should be interesting. Buckle up.
I am most likely the only christian in my circle of (American) christian friends who do not believe that the US is a christian nation.
The rise of Richest Takes All election strategies proves my point: if you got the money, you’ll get the votes. Moreover – Big Business will always be the American way. All hail Capitalism and the pursuit of happiness! In the case – happiness in the form of wealth and power.
Don’t get me wrong – I don’t want private industry to be phased out. By no means. But when corporations can buy elections, when the US Chamber of Commerce can accept foreign donations by the millions and use it to influence US elections with impunity, something has gone terribly wrong.
If American Christians don’t wake up to this fallacy of conservative politics that they slavishly support because the Repubs / Tea Party throw out buzz words like pro life, American exceptionalism, country first, christian nation etc etc – they’ll realise too late that they have been worshipping Mamon and not God at all.
And by the by, abortion rates are still high and so is teen pregnancy, America is still at war, terrorists still try to attack us, the poor are much much poorer, former President GW Bush admitted he gave the order to torture, he also allowed government agencies to spy on American citizens and the current President, elected by a large majority in 2008 is smeared, lied about and cursed at every single day publicly from prominent Republicans despite having no basis at all, no evidence at all and against every empirical fact.
What part of any of this shows that the “Christian” leaders under the Bush Admin and Christian leaders around this country today have indeed carried out their duties in a way that glorifies God?
Amen. We will know them by their fruits. Wake up believers! Don’t be the foolish virgins of the parable. Thank God our president is a peacemaker among the warmongering industrialists. May the Almighty empower him to promote justice and righteousness, I pray.
Yes, agree. And you know, I don’t agree with the President on everything but the man professed Christ in public, what MORE do they want? It seems to certain Tea Party leaders *ahem* Palin – SOME confessions of Christ are better than others.
Makes me sick to be honest.
You are one of the best, absolute best! Your insights are powerful, honest and accurate.
I am so impressed that you can parse out the truth and live the essence of your faith, not the blind dogma. How I wish there were more of you and less of the slavish followers of ignorant or corrupt self-styled religious leaders and pundits. Thank you so much for restoring my faith that there are people of honor and intelligence in the evangelical movement. We so rarely hear anyone step forth out of that category and say what you say with a clear mind and loving heart.
I hope you influence others who know you, who can learn from your example, and who understand how closely you are trying to follow the faith and not the folly of what has come to be accepted as right-center and right-wing religion in America.
Praise GOD for His grace to restore my sight from being once blind!
I’ve tried to have honest conversations with the American Christians I know. It never goes too far beyond the culture issues. So I try other ways during general discussions at home groups and hope that I am saying the right things to challenge them.
Alas, I really really had to hold my tongue (and biting sarcasm) when a dear dear fellow Christian sister said “I think Sarah Palin is great”. Boy did the Lord come thru for me on that occasion! It’s not right to tear her down – she’s a wonderful person and I’ve known her for years, I know for a fact that she and many many others in the church are being duped by Palin’s lies. Only God can expose Palin for who she is and I PRAY His judgement comes SOON.
I have a list of all the influential people in our world (the list is getting pretty extensive) and I try to bring them before the Lord every morning. He said to pray for all, even our enemies. I can’t think of any worse enemies to humanity and the true faith. Sometimes I am led to pray longer over them or certain ones and sometimes I only have time and energy to read their names. On occasion I get prompted to pray some awesome things into their lives. I don’t know if I will ever see the effects of these prayers, but oh well. That isn’t my concern. He is in control, even in chaos.
Wow, thank you so much! I pray for our leaders too and your comments have really encouraged me to do it more. Thank you!
God is good =D
I have met a lot of Palin supporters as well. How does one interpret the bible? Literal or… I wish she were a Democrat with different calm or happy rhetoric. I don’t underestimate her and simply don’t believe she believes in everything she exposes. She has learned how to get attention. I don’t think the Repubs should underestimate her as she just might be their top rated candidate visibly. I would not have thought this a couple of years ago but agree with a prior Mudlfats post & red has changed the map.
There are a lot of people who think and can relate to her across the country. That is evident when looking at the Republican vote this election. The President made a comment that will haunt him 2012 and that will be her mantra. She has her head in the books/briefings and I think she will have a comeback of sorts. Watch Bristol soar btw. The negative bites only tick off her base. The lady is smarter than people think, luck is not that prevalant. I think she is stunningly attractive and will have a place in the history books that may surprise us all. I have not been a Palin fan but I can say this with clear conscience. If we examined the men that sit in Congress and Senate today, we would be writing about their lack of intellect. What I would like to see is a woman not yell sexism but “bring it on.” She should run but it may or may not end her career.
HEY! This is not me! I didn’t write this! Can you have two Hopes? This comment above is not from me.
Hope
yes- there can be 2 hopes as long as a different email is attached to the hope…
your lil wordpress quilty thingy is what tells us which hope is which…
and I know the lovely gold one is you 🙂
I concur.
Christ did not ask the money- changers for shekels from their PAC…he whipped them and drove them from the temple!
Then he got crucified… ruh roh to all of us willing to call out the “Moneylenders” (billionaire-corporate-masters and idiot-puppet-masters). And may God bless those who live the Golden Rule –instead of just talking about it.
From an agnostic who believes in a divine spirit who wants us to be the best, most responsible person possible to the most people, animals and enviornment.
This past Tuesday, I wrote in another thread about a close friend who is a devout Christian. On Election Day, she said that she supported the party that ‘reflected her values’, which she has determined to be the Republican/Conservative party. In our state, that meant voting for Carl Paladino for governor.
Paladino was shown over and over to be a volatile, homophobic man who sent pornographic and racist emails to hundreds of people, fathered a child with a former employee while married to another woman, and made his fortune from the very tax breaks and government programs he promised to abolish. He has a record of demeaning comments and actions towards women, including calling our US Senator, Kirsten Gillibrand, “Schumer’s little girl”. He is the antithesis of everything that Jesus preached and actually proud of his anger and prejudice.
He IS against abortion, even in cases of rape and incest, and I’m sure that’s why my friend voted for him. It kills me that she could overlook everything that is truly vile about the man and vote for him because of ONE ISSUE.
I don’t understand how true Christians can support the party that is trying to eliminate services for the most vulnerable, prevent or repeal laws that protect the rights of minority groups, repeal health care reform for those who cannot otherwise afford medical care, decimate federal safety regulations for industry, energy and agriculture, and take from the needy to give to the wealthy.
When and how did the Democratic party, which has long stood up for the common man, become demonized and the Republican party, which deliberately hurts the middle class in order to benefit the corporations and the wealthy, become the ‘virtuous’ party of the religious right?
OMG. Carl Paladino? It seems that upon this nexus of abortion balances the whole rotten and rickety structure of republican ‘values’. The child is sacred in the room. Once that child is born, he/she are on his/her own. That child had better not be born into a household with a single mother because the Republicans do not believe in the safety net–they only believe in ‘charity’. And should that child witness abuse and model his/her behavior therewith, the Republicans will allow the government to provide services that counsel or nurture the child–only ‘process’ the ‘case number’ to ensure ‘efficient use of finds’. And if that child is left to fend for herself, on the street, because she is afraid of her mother’s violent boyfriend? The Republicans think she should go to a Mission, but not have the shelter that a well-funded government program could provide. And if that child should commit a crime, such as using drugs, selling her body or stealing food, Republicans want to ‘throw the book’ at her. Presumptive sentencing, try the child as an adult. Lock her up and throw away the key. And if that child is sexually abused and terrorized in prison under the detached and uncaring authority of the private corporation running the prison, Republicans will cut the budget for the mental health care and transition facilities necessary for that child to re-enter society. And if this traumatized child chooses to murder her abuser out of some post-traumatic defensive phobic fixation, she will be treated as a menace to society and, if in Texas, likely to be executed for her crime. Executed by Pro-life Republicans who fought so hard to make sure that child was born.
This is the description of a psychotic dystopia not a paradise of enlightened self-government envisioned by Jefferson!
“roo,’ equals “Womb” WTF???
JESUS, my keyboard! I can’t touch type so I don’t see what’s on the screen! UGH! “Roo” obviously references “Room” I WISH we could edit our comments like Blogger…
ANOTHER mess up” “The Republicans will allow the government to provide services that nurture the child” there should be a big, fat NOT between “will” and “allow”!
Right you are and I have myself seen this and read of many cases that you may be talking about.Social services is no better they take a child out of an abusive home and a week later put that child back and at risk. Many have died because of this lack of oversight by supposed professionals. I have watchedanti abortionest push women around and when the woman asked for help if they did not abort they were told go to social services.Now isn’t that funny they want smaller government but send people to social services instead of helping them themselves.