General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsIn his past life as a Democrat, Jared Kushner contributed to a long list of Democrats
and Democratic organizations.
Funny that the only person people are trying to smear is the one who might be a contender for 2020.
Jared Kushner's donations:
Committee for Working Families
DNC Services
New Millenium PAC
NJ Democratic State Committee
HillPAC
Democratic Committee of NY State
Hillary Clinton, Dick Swett, Charles Schumer, Robert Torricelli, Jon Corzine, Frank Lautenberg, Robert Abrams, Cory Booker, Sean Eldridge, Bill Pascrell, Timothy Carden, Robert Menendez.
The only non-Dems he gave to were Joe Lieberman and Rudy Giuliani.
https://www.opensecrets.org/donor-lookup/results?name=Jared+Kushner
The smear campaign has begun. Expect three or more years of this.
NewJeffCT
(56,828 posts)and also arguably the most charismatic speaker of the group you mention as well.
pnwmom
(108,977 posts)NewJeffCT
(56,828 posts)regarding importing medication from Canada because he had accepted a small amount of money from people who worked in the pharmaceutical industry. With some basic research, what I found was 89% of the money Booker received for his Senate run was from individuals. (the largest PAC donor industry, by the way, was Legal/Law Firms. The second largest was the Entertainment industry) There are over 300,000 people in NJ, NYC and PA that work in the pharmaceutical industry, so it's no surprise that some people in that industry gave money to Booker's campaign.
However, Booker was singled out despite several Democrats voting against the Sanders resolution, even though Booker voted for the similar Wyden resolution.
pnwmom
(108,977 posts)in New Jersey work in big pharma. Big deal.
And that amendment Sanders proposed was half-baked -- his effort to get in first. It lacked the consumer protections that were in the subsequent bill that Booker did support. My state's Senators opposed Bernie's amendment, too, because we had already had a problem here with people buying fake drugs from online pharmacies purporting to be in Canada. The bill Booker and Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell supported was a much better bill.
JustAnotherGen
(31,818 posts)I posted in the NJ group a high level explanation of who lives here and what we do for a living. People twisted over this must never donate to campaigns. I've always had to declare my line of work.
NewJeffCT
(56,828 posts)I think it was $450,000 in total from the pharmaceutical industry. With 300,000 employees in the industry, it's a huge $1.50 per employee.
NurseJackie
(42,862 posts)Txbluedog
(1,128 posts)that when SS Trump sinks the rethuglicans can claim that the family were democrats to begin with and they are blameless in this whole mess
MADem
(135,425 posts)He was buying ACCESS. If all of those seats were filled by Republicans, he would have donated to them, too.
Txbluedog
(1,128 posts)MADem
(135,425 posts)It's often easier to fight a fire when you know what accelerant started it.
mcar
(42,307 posts)Curious that only one Dem pol is being criticized for it.
MADem
(135,425 posts)Hmmm.
Reference:
mcar
(42,307 posts)Also a possible 2020 contender.
MADem
(135,425 posts)It's all about buying influence.
Rich people know that, the way the system works, MONEY buys ACCESS.
Don't hate the players, hate the game.
We need to CHANGE the game. We can't do that until we get rid of that nutjob in the WH, and this GOP Congress, which thrives on this game.
Txbluedog
(1,128 posts)MADem
(135,425 posts)Txbluedog
(1,128 posts)MADem
(135,425 posts)President Pence or President Ryan.
We can try hanging on until JAN 2019 and aiming for PRESIDENT PELOSI, but in the meantime, someone needs to muzzle the Orange Asswipe and slow his roll.
zipplewrath
(16,646 posts)Don't hate the players, hate the game. The only thing I'd add is we saw the game moving in this direction decades ago and we were sold on the whole "it's a good thing" idea by the post McGovern/Carter democratic party. Well, rightly or wrongly, it's how we ended up here.
MADem
(135,425 posts)and went along, because we were already being voter caged and gerrymandered and Voter ID'd out of our franchise. The only place we could compete is on the money front.
No Dem likes this shit--they spend every spare minute dialing for dollars and chowing down on rubber chicken at fundraisers. It eats them up.
zipplewrath
(16,646 posts)Practically everyone in congress complains, and comments upon the problem of nonstop fund raising. But they don't try to change the "game" either. In the end their all invested in the game.
A few years ago someone commented upon the expanding reality of the "Political Industrial Complex". It is a system by which consultants and political operatives, plus organizations that do polling and other political research have grown to the point at which they are an industry in and of themselves. And with Citizens United, it has greatly expanded. The problem is that these people aren't in politics as "public service". They aren't in it for ideology. They are in for money/power (which is a bit like space/time or mass/energy. It's the same thing). The point of politics for them, for this industry, is to make money. And they have gotten very good at it. And the best way to make money is to win elections. And so we get into this vicious cycle where winning makes money which then causes people to win more and make more money, that they use to win more.
But HOW and WHY they win is unimportant. And so it becomes the equivalent of TV. A vast waste land of crappy shows occasionally interrupted by a bit of art once and a bit. And right now our national politics has become a season of "The Apprentice".
MADem
(135,425 posts)It's an error to suggest that both sides shoulder equal blame.
zipplewrath
(16,646 posts)I'm not sure who you can trace the whole "war room" schtick for money raising to. I can tell you that it has long been a tradition within politics that the politician who can help OTHER politicians raise money, will find themselves in a leadership role quickly.
MADem
(135,425 posts)Citizens United is what really screwed the pooch.
zipplewrath
(16,646 posts)Truth be known, I won't be surprised if soon the RNC will cooperate with the DNC on restricting the cash flow into politics. It's getting so expensive that it's getting harder to play the game. It also empowers the "wrong" people. The current flock of billionaires has as many left leaning as right leaning. It's less and less about the Wall Street crowd, and they don't like that.
ehrnst
(32,640 posts)mhw
(678 posts)Jared who?
sheshe2
(83,751 posts)I am sick of all the faux outrage we have been seeing.
alarimer
(16,245 posts)So our elected officials don't ever have to choose between doing the right thing and doing the bidding of these people because you had better believe they expected to get something in return for that money. It might only have been a few government contracts or maybe an ambassadorship or something, but it still slimy business-as-usual.
If Kushner does go down (and I hope he does), everyone he donated to is tainted somewhat.
pnwmom
(108,977 posts)get donations from thousands of people. No, they are not "tainted" because years later one of their donors does something wrong.
You can scrub anyone's donor or fan lists and find jerks and worse.
I don't see anyone blaming Sanders for that Portland lunatic...yet he was a BS cheerleader on fb.
No one "should" blame him, mind...but the shoe pinches on the other foot.
BigmanPigman
(51,590 posts)DemocraticWing
(1,290 posts)The problem with Booker is the same as with Lautenberg, Lieberman, Giuliani, etc.
They are all owned by Wall Street
MADem
(135,425 posts)thanks some of these Russian loving Putinbot fringe characters. I prefer the middle of the horseshoe to the ends.
DemocraticWing
(1,290 posts)There is NO comparison between Nazis and socialists. One side wants free college and the other wants genocide; if you think those two things are equally bad you are deluded.
So called centrism is an ideology of its own and extreme adherents to it have helped wreck this country.
MADem
(135,425 posts)Sorry pal, if we survive Trumputin, those centrists you deride will look sweet to the majority of voters.
WinkyDink
(51,311 posts)kentuck
(111,089 posts)Not necessarily the same reasons that we might be Democrats.
They are Democrats for political advantage only. They are mostly apolitical in their beliefs. But they usually donate to Democrats in expectation of political favors.
For example, Gary Cohn from Wall Street, is also a Democrat. He may be appoint Chief of Staff if Preibus is dismissed?
pnwmom
(108,977 posts)if they had been truly apolitical.
In any case, it's not fair to Cory Booker to blame him for not having the foresight to realize that Kushner would be switching teams eventually.
kentuck
(111,089 posts)When it suits their financial interests.
They change parties about as often as the wind blows.
I don't consider them "real" Democrats.
I doubt that Republicans consider Donald Trump a "real" Republican either?
pnwmom
(108,977 posts)and both his parents were lifelong Democrats.
Regardless, he no longer is one.