“Big Money” is pouring into politics. Hundreds of millions of dollars are going to right-wing organizations to elect Republicans. But the moneyed people behind these organizations are not concerned about America – they are only concerned about themselves, and their profits.
Washington is for sale. Big money is buying, and our elected representatives are behind the counter only too willing to help them. But the real problem is the voters who bought into the Big Money propaganda machine put them there.
Does anyone believe that “FreedomWorks,” the right-wing organization funded by former Speaker of the House Dick Armey, is really interested in the people of America? Does anyone believe that “Americans for Prosperity,” the right-wing organization founded by the billionaire Koch brothers (David and Charles) cares about average Americans?
Not on your life. Their sole objective is to elect members of Congress who will look out for them. And thanks to the Supreme Court’s decision in Citizens United v. FEC, these, and other organizations like them, don’t even have to disclose where there money is coming from.
I have to give Big Money credit. They have done a great job obscuring their agenda — and pulling the wool over the eyes of the voters. They’re like magicians engaging in sleight of hand. They keep the audience’s attention focused on one hand while the other hand is really where the action is.
Big Money appeals to the masses by advocating for “lower taxes, less government, and more freedom. “ These are things that “the rest of us” can relate to – even when we don’t know what such slogans mean to us individually, or what the consequences of actions would be. Voters think they will benefit from such actions, but what Big Monet really means in lower taxes for corporations, less government regulation of business and more freedom to defraud the average American.
While voters on the right are vigorously protesting big government, they are really turning the country over to Big Money.
The Republicans like to say the excessive regulations and killing jobs. Baloney. Regulations have only a tiny effect on jobs. What regulations do is cut into corporate profits. And that’s all that “big money” cares about.
One of the Republicans’ loudest claim is the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act is bad for the country — because it imposed excessive burdens on community banks and limits local lending. Nonsense. Dodd-Frank is of minimal significance for local/community banks. But is has (or was intended to have) major impact on the financial games that Well Street was playing during the early 2000’s—and which were the direct causes of the financial collapse when began in 2008.
The saddest thing is that the people who buy into the message of the Big Money propaganda machine don’t even know that they are being manipulated by forces far more threatening to our well-being than the government.
The most visible manifestation of the Big Money propaganda machine is the Tea Party. Although most of its “members” like to say the Tea Party is a grass-roots movement, the movement was begun by Dick Armey’s FreedomWorks, and continues to get much of its support from the Koch brothers’ “Americans for Prosperity.”
But winning elections is only the beginning. Once the ill-informed have elected Big Money’s right-wing candidates, they are immediately deluged by the Big Money lobbyists who promote the legislation their Big Money bosses want. And this is where the voters are left out in the cold.
Big Money spends hundreds of millions of dollars every year making sure that they get legislation that benefits them – not the people they got fired up during the election.
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All those social issues they made so important during the election – forgotten, they don’t affect profits.
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All those promises to reduce our taxes. Forget it. The lobbyists look out for the rich.
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All those regulations we talked about – irrelevant, unless they affect our profits. Jobs creation – forget it. Big Money gets what it wants, and the rest of us are on our own.
Voters who think they are reducing the power of government are, in reality, turning control of the economy, and the nation, over to the unelected elite who have no interest in the concerns of those same voters.
Wake up America. It’s time we realized what is happening – and put a stop to it.
Comments or questions are welcome.