"This Is the Supreme Court's Shutdown"

[applegrove]

This Is the Supreme Court's Shutdown

by Mansur Gidfar at the Huffington Post

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mansur-gidfar/this-is-the-supreme-court_b_4086269.html?utm_hp_ref=politics

"SNIP..............................



There are two important factors to bear in mind here. The first is just how large this explosion in spending was. Outside groups spent over $338 million trying to influence the 2008 elections, which was the last presidential election cycle before the Citizens United ruling. A handsome sum to be sure, but one that pales in comparison to the mind-boggling figure of over $1 billion of outside spending in the 2012 elections. In fact, there was more outside spending in the 2012 election cycle then in every presidential election cycle since 1992 combined.

The second is just how small the number of people doing this spending is. In the 2012 election cycle, 216 people -- that's .00007 percent of the population -- contributed over $560 million to super PACs alone, which is more than one and a half times the amount of all outside spending in the 2008 election cycle combined. Put another way, 216 people spent nearly 11,000 times the amount an average family of four makes in an entire year on vapid attack ads produced by nebulous groups with names like "Americans for a More American America."

Thanks to Citizens United, these outside groups can now use the threat of a primary challenge backed by multimillion-dollar ad buys to force their agendas. Norman Ornstein, a scholar at the conservative American Enterprise Institute, estimates that there are about 30 hardliners in the House driving the government shutdown and another 150 Republicans who are just playing along out of sheer terror of crossing the incredibly powerful coalition of post-Citizens United interest groups . With organizations like the Senate Conservative Fund and Heritage Action running targeted ads against congressional Republicans who haven't voiced enough enthusiasm for the shutdown strategy, the message that's being sent is clear: If you don't want a super PAC or 501(c)4 backing your next primary challenger to spring up overnight, you'll fall in line and you'll do it now.

A popular Democratic talking point throughout the shutdown accuses congressional Republicans of "holding the government hostage," but this metaphor is an imperfect one. The would-be hostage takers are themselves held hostage by a political system dominated by a handful of wealthy special interests. The opinions of the public or even the majority of congressional Republicans don't matter -- it's the money that's running the show.



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[applegrove]

1. Is that the big difference between Occupy and Tea Party movements? The money

behind each group? Is that why Occupy didn't thrive?