In Office, Seeking Office, Moneyed Backers: Symbiosis Amok

Moneyed Backers and Oh, Yeah, these 5 (to 4) Supporters

(The Losers: The Public)

Two historical cases and yes, by the same 5-4:

The first case was Citizens United v. the FEC, which opened the flood gates for big money to flow:

Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, (2010) is a U.S. constitutional law case dealing with the regulation of campaign spending by corporations. The United States Supreme Court held that the First Amendment prohibits the government from restricting independent political expenditures by corporations. The principles articulated by the Supreme Court in the case have also been extended to labor unions and other associations.

The second case was McCutheon v. the FEC, which in essence, tore down the gate and threw away the parts:  

McCutcheon v. Federal Election Commission, (2014) was a second landmark campaign finance case before the United States Supreme Court challenging Section 441 of the Federal Election Campaign Act (FECA), which imposed a biennial aggregate limit on individual contributions to national party and federal candidate committees.

And here we are today. The proof as they say is in the pudding or in this case, in the fattest wallets and biggest checkbooks ever known to mankind. A great report by Open Secrets.org here with this headline: 

Cracking the Contribution Cap: One in a Million Americans

And here we are today – the proof as they say is in the pudding or in this case, in the fattest wallet and biggest checkbooks ever…

Thrust of this fine article: Of the 318 million people in the U.S., a whopping 310 donors have given more than the total $123,200 they were allowed to contribute to candidates, parties and PACs before the McCutcheon ruling, a new analysis by the Center for Responsive Politics shows. This gilded group of donors favors Republicans over Democrats by a two-to-one margin.

Continue at this link.

My footnotes for what it's worth:

Here is the database of those 300 donors who have been running wild ... and in the name of representative democracy, of course. If you honestly believe and support that, then may I offer you a bride in Brooklyn, and real cheap, too.

Here under column E ... we can see the amount the 300 gave post-McCutcheon. Also, did you know that very few Americans make political contributions at all, and less than 0.03 percent is the number of those who actually can an do give more than the allowed $2,600: the maximum an individual can give to a single candidate for each election.

Now, do you still believe that money is still speech, if so, I guess those like Sheldon Adelson, who gave $92 million in 2012 and a handful of others like him, have not only the fattest wallets but the biggest dictionaries to boot.

Thanks for stopping by.