How Billionaire Oligarchs Are Becoming Their Own Political Parties

[TomCADem]

Nice article discussing how thanks to Citizens United, our electoral system has become a plaything for the ultra rich.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/19/magazine/how-billionaire-oligarchs-are-becoming-their-own-political-parties.html?_r=0

In 2010, the Citizens United decision by the Supreme Court effectively blew apart the McCain-Feingold restrictions on outside groups and their use of corporate and labor money in elections. That same year, a related ruling from a lower court made it easier for wealthy individuals to finance those groups to the bottom of their bank accounts if they so chose. What followed has been the most unbridled spending in elections since before Watergate. In 2000, outside groups spent $52 million on campaigns, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. By 2012, that number had increased to $1 billion.

The result was a massive power shift, from the party bosses to the rich individuals who ran the super PACs (as most of these new organizations came to be called). Almost overnight, traditional party functions — running TV commercials, setting up field operations, maintaining voter databases, even recruiting candidates — were being supplanted by outside groups. And the shift was partly because of one element of McCain-Feingold that remains: the ban on giving unlimited soft money to parties. In the party universe, rich players like the Wylys, Tom Steyer or the Kochs were but single planets among many. The party bosses had to balance their interests against those who brought just as much to the table in the form of money or votes. A party platform has to account for both the interests of the oil industry and those of the ethanol industry; those of the casino industry and those of the anti-gambling religious right; those of Wall Street and those of labor.

With the advent of Citizens United, any players with the wherewithal, and there are surprisingly many of them, can start what are in essence their own political parties, built around pet causes or industries and backing politicians uniquely answerable to them. No longer do they have to buy into the system. Instead, they buy their own pieces of it outright, to use as they see fit. “Suddenly, we privatized politics,” says Trevor Potter, an election lawyer who helped draft the McCain-Feingold law.

* * *

Steyer, with his $50 million pledge, is one of the most deep-pocketed political arrivistes. But he has a long way to go to catch up with the Koch brothers, whose own group, Americans for Prosperity, already has political operations in every state that Steyer is contesting, along with 28 others. The group says it will spend at least $125 million this year.

[Fred Sanders]

1. As intended by the corrupt cons on the Supreme Court who care not a wit about interfering in

the political process pegged to the Big Lie of judicial non intervention.....the exact intervention the constitution made them responsible for to prevent big money abuses.

The Gilded Age is back.

[adirondacker]

4. Yup. nt

[bemildred]

2. Yep. nt

[blkmusclmachine]

5. ,

,

[KoKo]

6. If only there could be a legal way to turn back the Supreme's Decision

or have Congress get this money out of Elections on their own. But...probably not going to happen for a long while... Even the "Constitutional Amendment" will be long time in process.

[NorthCarolina]

8. The oligarchs already are the political parties. Do they need more than the 2 they already own? nt

[bemildred]

9. Real billionaires have their own PRIVATE political party.

And they hire their own politicans personally, personal loyalty is a must. If you don't have that, you're a loser.

[RKP5637]

10. Exactly! Give it some more time and political parties will be a thing of the past, we will

be living in a dictatorial country run by the oligarchs. Only those with vast sums of money will have a say, and some Americans will still be wandering in ruts of delusion and brainwashing wondering, WTF, how did this happen.

[RKP5637]

11. Crooks and uber-wealthy have found just taking over the government is highly profitable! And

Citizens United has handed it to them. A democracy, what a cruel joke. That starting going out in the 80's.