By far the most obnoxious phenomenon of the 2012 campaign was the zeal with which billionaires assumed that their newfound ability to make unrestricted campaign contributions gave them a superior voice in national affairs. From the utter inanity of Donald Trump to the frank manipulations of Sheldon Adelson, the very rich treated the campaign as a game to be rigged, and an opportunity to press their own agendas. During the primaries, Adelson and Foster Freiss single-handedly kept candidates from dropping out. Thankfully, those candidates — Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum — didn’t get very far. And the hundreds of millions of dollars of super PAC ads in the general election didn’t yield visible fruit. No doubt they’ll try again, which is why Congress should force such deep-pocketed backers to put their names on the ads they fund. It may be too much to hope that they would just disappear.
editorial | lessons from the election
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The on-camera vitriolic rants of multimillionaires should concern all of us. Now that they find themselves on the losing side of the election, what will be the next focus of their money? The public good? I doubt it. I hope someone in the media universe keeps an eye on these plutocrats. They are a real threat to American democracy.
You mean the Kessler foundation that bundled for Pres. Obama and got loans for $585 million dollars for Solyndra should be watched very carefully. And tell Pres. Obama to stop outsourcing to Finland for the Fiske electric car that costs $100 thousand dollars to buy. Maybe this is what his voters were hoping would be one of the freebies.
A couple of cheap shots compared to a fusillade of such lying, cheating and stealing by the neo-con ultra-conservative corporate greed-heads. Sorry, but adding up the score tells the true tale.
They had this fake vision of Welfare Queens taking some of their money when they NEED every possible million so that they can become demi-gods. They are worshipped in the same sick way that genius is ascribed to them - because they have money! They COULD do a lot of good with their money - like Bill Gates - but they would rather play the money game and keep those with little or nothing in their proper place as worshipers!
Demagogues, not demi-gods. Two different things.
I agree those $35,500.00 per plate fund raiser dinners for Pres. Obama in Brookline is a disgrace.
Dang! Did I miss those? Did they forget to send me my invitation? Drat!
That $35K is peanuts compared to the $50,000 per plate shindigs the The Mittster threw for fatcats who wanted to hear all about the antics of the Great Unwashed 47% while they gobbled Mitt's lobster and swilled his champagne.
Ah sweet Schadenfreude! To think that these plutarchs blew billions backing losers! The winners were the broadcast media, who cleaned up by running the ads- it was even more lucrative than Christmas! (And that is why the air studios have a red light over the door- they are whorehouses.)
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