Statesman: Follow the Money in Elections

[mhatrw]

http://www.statesman.com/news/news/local/follow-the-money-in-elections/nnsyj/

The real revolutionary campaign is being mounted by a Democratic Party candidate, who is refusing to take any money from the billionaire class. He is only accepting smaller donations from average Americans. Sen. Bernie Sanders is essentially running against the rigged media campaign system that depends on mega-donors. He is refusing to be forced to serve their interests over the interests of the nation at large. He will also be running no negative advertising. So, how does he intend to compete with the billions of dollars being spent by other candidates?

This is the truly revolutionary part. He will not be spending a lot of money on ad buys in the corporate media. If you don’t have the big bucks, you simply cannot spend money with the media. Instead, he is traveling around the country taking his policy plans directly to large stadiums full of people, and spreading his message across the web, with Facebook, Twitter, e-mails, other social media, word of mouth between neighbors and spontaneous volunteering. Since Sanders will not be buying much advertising, it seems like the media is trying to ignore him as much as possible. And when they do mention his campaign, it is almost always in a negative way. “He is a Socialist.” “He can never realistically win.” “He is funny looking.” Why talk up a candidate who does not intend to buy your services, when there are many others who will?

But Sanders is methodically building support without the media’s assistance. With every new poll, he gets closer to overtaking the presumptive Democratic Party front runner, having already succeeded in Iowa and New Hampshire. Everyone who reads his proposals (all over the internet) and policies for re-building the middle class in our country immediately feel excitement and hope for their futures. They are ready to get involved in this revolutionary campaign by sending in $3-50 or more every so often to provide Sanders with more airplane tickets and staff. They trust him because of his established track record on the issues spanning decades.

Will it work? We shall see. But we can be certain that if any of the other presidential candidates are elected, their primary constituency will continue to be the billionaire class … not the middle class and poor. We will continue down the same old economic road of bulging incomes for the wealthy and shrinking incomes for everyone else. Like all revolutions, it will take a majority of Americans to decide that the currently rigged economic system needs to be changed if we ever expect to have a better life for our children and grandchildren. I hope enough of us decide that the time is now.

[mhatrw]

1. Follow the money before your President does. n/t