Earlier this month I wrote a post (Economics for Dummies) about the insanity of our current economic system. My main point was that most of the economic pain we are feeling at the moment has its roots in our embrace of a capitalist market economy in which short-term profits and shareholder return are more important than the affordability of goods and services to the consumer. Well, wouldn't you know that the related topics of economics and dummies have bubbled up in my fevered brain once again as they relate to yet another hot topic ... elections.
According to an analysis published last month by OpenSecrets.org, an independent and nonpartisan group which tracks money in political campaigns, spending on the 2022 midterm elections by all parties is likely to exceed 9.3 billion dollars. Yes, that's billion, with a "b." An NPR report on October 22nd indicated that "dark money" groups - which are not legally required to disclose their donors or sources of funding - have pumped nearly a billion dollars into GOP senate campaigns alone.
Of course, dark money flows to the coffers of both parties, and the lack of transparency in the source and spending of these types of contributions makes it notoriously difficult to determine who - if anyone - benefits more in any given race.
Here's my outraged fulmination: the amount of money spent on American political campaigns is obscene.
Supreme Court decisions like Citizens United allowed vast amounts of unrestricted cash to pour into political campaigns, equating cash contributions with free speech protected under the First Amendment to the Constitution. You can buy a lot more free speech with 9.3 billion dollars than you can with the theoretical maximum allowed to the average middle-class American citizen wage earner. This is the chart published by the Federal Election Commission showing political contribution limits for 2021-2022:
But let's leave aside the complete lack of limits and transparency on political contributions by organizations and look at another source of vast expenditures on elections: lawsuits.
Winning ... accumulating power for personal and political advantage ... is so important that enormous amounts are spent by individual office-seekers, political parties, and advocacy groups on lawsuits contesting electoral outcomes with which they disagree.
According to an investigative report by the Washington Post published in February, 2021, spending resulting from election-related lawsuits filed by Der Furor and his enablers has cost US Taxpayers at least $519 million dollars.
Can you imagine, Dear Readers, what could have been done with the 9.3 billion dollars spent on the 2022 midterm elections, and the hundreds of millions of dollars spent on frivolous lawsuits based on nothing?
The Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary defines obscene in part as, "repulsive by reason of crass disregard of moral or ethical principles; so excessive as to be offensive."
The money spent on winning elections at all costs, including lawsuits seeking to overturn elections that don't turn out as the loser wanted, is the very definition of obscene. Consider just a few of the moral implications:
How many schools could have have built, repaired, or resupplied, how many new teachers could have been hired, and how many current teachers could have received a pay raise?
How many hospitals could have been built, equipped, and staffed in underserved areas?
How many expensive medications could have been provided to the sick?
How many Americans could have been provided with affordable health care?
How many crumbling roads and bridges could have been repaired?
How many contaminated sources of drinking water could have been purified?
How about a just few of the ethical implications?
How many laws serve the interests of big business and the wealthy because they were written by lobbyists and passed by the votes of politicians beholden to big-spending donors?
How many visits to the public trough by big business and the wealthy been facilitated by office-holders to whom the receipt of campaign funds is more important than the public interest?
How many elected officials have done the bidding of wealthy donors in order to secure lucrative sinecures after they leave office?
Ladies and gentlemen, Dear Readers, the word of the day is obscene. Remember it when you go to the polls, and when you evaluate the performance of those to whom you have given your vote ... you deserve to know who they're actually working for.
More thoughts coming.
Bilbo
2 comments:
"How many schools could have been built..."
Come on now, you know the DMs would have just built themselves a few more yachts.
Obscene is the right word. That’s a LOT of money!
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