On Jan 22, 9:30*pm, Joe from Kokomo wrote:
On Jan 22, 7:33 am, Joe from Kokomo wrote:
On Jan 22, 2:57 am, bpnjensen wrote:
Well, whatever else they've done - they have handed the elections and
thus, the lawmaking machinery, to the wealthiest corporations in
America.
Stevie Nichts wrote:
First, "the wealthiest corporations" include unions,
environmentalists,
and other left-wing special interests, and there's no point in
pretending otherwise.
Well, yeah, you're right -- kinda, sorta.
What you overlook is the simple fact that the Big Corporations have TONS
and TONS of money, waaay more than any union or "other left-wing special
interests" could ever hope to scrape up.
Stevie Nichts wrote:
Y'know, I keep hearing about this boogeyman, but I've yet
to see stats to back it up.
What boogeyman and what stats? It is pretty much intuitively obvious to
the casual observer that Big Business has more money than the Unions
because a) the unions have been decreasing in strength for years
True only of non-government unions. Govenment unions, however, now
account for 51% of all union members -- and climbing.. In the midst
of
this recession, with 10% unemployment, Congress somehow managed
to pad the Federal payroll with 70,000 new hires.
I note that you seem unable to back up your claim that evil
corporations spend TONS of money. OpenSecrets is your friend.
And there's no reason to limit the discussion to unions. Corporations
are not, by definition, conservative. Trivial proof: George Soros. Or
is that different somehow?
Please answer me this:
If I recall correctly, there used to be a limit on how much of a
political contribution could be made, possibly $2500. And I seem to
further remember that occasionally, some tried to donate more than that,
got caught and was prosecuted. Please tell me how anything over $2500
used to be bad and now they can donate 25 MILLION or 125 million, the
sky is the limit. Again, everything to do with buying politicians,
damned little to do with your red herring of free speech.
We've seen how utterly ineffectual campaign-finance laws have
been -- or haven't you noticed that money somehow manages
to get spent? Limit it here, it pops up there, in the form of
PACs and 501s and 527s and other special interests -- many
of them established by Mr. Soros and his ideological comrades.
You won't get far trying to convince anyone that liberals are
somehow powerless when it comes to funding.
Me, I'll take 100% disclosure and absolute transparency over
such impotent attempts anytime. Unlike you, I have faith in
the American voter -- and my faith was restored a couple of
days ago in Massachusetts. (Oh... too soon?
As an aside, it's interesting that a liberal (or so I presume)
believes that free speech is a 'red herring.' Civil rights and
civil liberties used to be a bedrock principle of the left.
When, exactly, did that change?