Article #12: Politics

SuperPacs.

One of the biggest, deadliest issues in America is campaign financing. Since the Citizens United ruling by the Supreme Court of the United States in 2010, there has been an influx of money into campaigns that can only be described as ‘legal bribery of politicians.’

And, just so you understand what we dub the ‘simpleness of simplicity,’ let us give you one quick example of the insanity of the Citizens United ruling and other crazy campaign finance laws.

Ok, you have former Governor Jeb Bush; son of the 41st President of the United States, George H. W. Bush, Sr., and younger brother of the 43rd President of the United States, George W. Bush, Jr.

Now, Governor Bush is more than likely, like his father and brother before him, going to be running for President of the United States, and we all know that running for that office takes an inordinate amount of money. However…

…in the age of Corporate Kings, raising those inordinate amounts of money is much closer to easy than difficult.

You see, nowadays the bulk of political campaign capital on that level is raised by what’s called SuperPacs; political organizations that monetarily support single or multiple candidates and can receive unlimited monies from anyone, and when they say unlimited, they are not in any way, shape, or form being figurative.

Someone, by law, can write a $100M check to a SuperPac for support of the campaign the person or persons the SuperPac is supporting. However, the campaign itself is limited to receiving only about $2,700 maximum per donor.

This is where Governor Jeb Bush comes into play.



His party affiliation is irrelevant for this example. Today, he will simply be our walking, breathing, living example of the term ‘loophole,’ particularly when it comes to money in politics.

Now, by law, candidates and their campaigns are not allowed to coordinate with SuperPacs. So, what has the Governor done?

Governor Bush has started stacking the SuperPac, that is going to be working toward getting him elected, with all of ‘his’ people. Oh, and by the way, I’m not speaking figuratively either.

“But wait,” you say, “Isn’t that against the law?“

No.

Why not? Well, it’s simple. Did you notice when we said earlier that Governor Bush was “…going to be running…” for the highest office in the land? Yes, “…going to be running…” of course means that Governor Bush has not yet declared his candidacy, which means that he’s not yet a candidate.

And, since he’s not yet a candidate, there can technically be no illegal coordination between a non-existent campaign and any SuperPac.

Loophole, meet law. Law, meet loophole.

So, taking advantage of a, to us, ‘purposeful loophole,’ Governor Bush is actually stacking the SuperPac, that is going to be supporting him, with everyone who is in his immediate ‘political’ family.

In other words, imagine you putting your Dad, your Mom, your brother, your sister, your community partners, and your company sponsors in the leadership positions of the SuperPac.

Then, as soon as you finish doing that and telling them everything you want to do and everything you want them to do, then you declare your candidacy for President of the United States and never talk to them again…more than likely…well, probably…maybe…we’ll see what happens in the future.

Yeah, imagine that ‘non-coordination.’

Do you see this insanity? It doesn’t matter if you’re a Republican, a Democrat, or an Independent. The game is rigged, people. And the little person has absolutely no chance without a Constitutional Amendment getting money out of politics or without getting a different Supreme Court to overturn the Citizens United Ruling. So, you tell us:

Which one of those do you think we’ll actually get?