Forum Overview :: Tansin A. Darcos's Alter Ego :: Don't be butthurt over Citizens United. It was the right decision.

[quote name="blackwater"][quote]As much as Trump's trying to put the blame on Democrats for Trumpcare/Ryancare's failure on Democrats refusing to help destroy their own signature plan, it was the Koch brothers who killed that bill for not being awful enough, as I pointed out earlier.[/quote] I happen to agree with the Kochs that the Ryancare bill was terrible. And I'm sure you do too. So... kind of a bad example, then? [quote]I'm not pulling this out of my ass Alex Jones-style. The ascendancy of their freedom caucus is the culmination of years of long-term political strategy kicked off by the Powell Memo written by future Supreme Court justice Lewis Powell in 1971....[/quote] Sounds like the lizard people need to get their shit together, then, since both the Kochs and Paul Ryan are (according to you) Libertarians. [quote]Citizens United [...] essentially legalized bribery, making the political class dependent on wealthy contributors like Soros or the Kochs...[/quote] Some Democrats seem to have this persecution fantasy that evil megacorps are keeping the Republicans in power by writing them blank checks. I see a lot of paranoid left-wing rants against Citizens United. In reality, though, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2014/07/16/the-massive-difference-in-how-democrats-and-republicans-raise-money/?utm_term=.f169336cd40f">Democrats get more money from organizations, and Republicans tend to get more from individuals.</a> That link is from 2014: I'm sure you could find even bigger disparities in the recent presidential election, where a lot of companies leaned heavily towards Hillary, the annointed one. Do you want to ban donations from unions, charities, west-coast technology companies? That's mostly going to hurt Democrats. The recent election is also a good reminder that the candidate that raises more money doesn't always win. Money has always been a part of politics, and always will be. This country was formed by big landowners like George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, partly in order to escape what they viewed as oppressive taxation by Britain. All these rules and regulations do nothing to change the fundamental link between money and power. Even McCain and Feingold couldn't successfully obey the McCain-Feingold campaign finance law their names appear on. And the law made things worse by <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/mccain-feingolds-devastating-legacy/2014/04/11/14a528e2-c18f-11e3-bcec-b71ee10e9bc3_story.html?utm_term=.ba18c9846b1e">funnelling money to fringe groups</a> rather than to the parties. [/quote]