Thom Hartmann: Republicans - propped up by Daddy Warbucks

This might be Super Tuesday - but there's nothing "super" about the Republican candidates running for President. In fact - there's nothing "super" about the Republican Party anymore. Thanks to this primary season - 40% of Americans say they have a less favorable view of the Republican Party than before the primaries began. What else do you expect when the candidates are forced to actually publicly reveal the Republican agenda - which means fighting to be number one guy to take away contraceptives from women, deny food stamps to struggling families, and cut taxes for the super rich while jacking them up on working people? Because it's a primary, this isn't a race to appeal to the broad majority of Americans - it's a race to appeal to the most selfish, most bigoted, and most greedy among Republican base voters.

That's why today in every hypothetical matchup with the Republican candidates - President Obama is projected to win in a landslide - beating Romney by 6 points - Paul by 8 points - Santorum by 14 points - and Gingrich by 17 points. And that, of course, is why the Republican establishment wants it all to end. They want Mitt Romney to be the guy as soon as possible - and they want this very revealing primary season to be locked away in history books so no more voters will be exposed to the real Republican agenda. They want to get back to claiming that they really love social programs, and Paul Ryan's plan to privatize Medicare was actually a wonderful thing for old people.

And after the votes are counted tonight - they'll probably get what they want - and Mitt Romney will once again look like the inevitable nominee...and quit talking about letting people die or taking away food stamps, but instead about how much he loves Social Security and Medicare. And he has to do that soon. After getting beat up for several months - right now - Mitt Romney's approval rating is at just 28% - President Obama is at 50%. If he does go on to win the nomination - he'll have the lowest approval rating of any nominee in history. The only Republican close to Romney in ratings was Bob Dole - who had a favorability rating of just 35% in 1996 - and we all know that didn't work out too well for the Grand ol' Party.

But there's a big difference between Mitt Romney and Bob Dole - and that's that Mitt Romney has a whole army of millionaires and billionaires, banksters, oil barons, and corporate CEOs behind him - financing his campaign - that Bob Dole didn't have - and that Bob Dole wasn't even legally allowed to have. We've seen this play out over and over again in the last few months. Candidates who have no business even being on a ballot - let alone being a front-runner for President - but are propped up by their own Daddy Warbucks.

Rick Santorum was nothing until his Wall Street billionaire, Foster Friess, came along to write million dollar checks.

Newt Gingrich was nothing until his billionaire Sheldon Adelson came along with his Hong Kong casino fortune.

Rick Perry was nothing until his billionaire Texas oil barons and Wal-mart heirs came along.

The difference between Mitt Romney and those guys is that Mitt Romney just has a heck of a lot more millionaires and billionaires on his side. It's really that simple. And eventually - when the deep pockets behind Santorum and Gingrich realize their investments are going sour - then they'll jump ship and join Romney too. So this really has nothing to do with favorability ratings - it doesn't even have much to do with voters - this has to do with corporate cash - and who has the most of it. And while that's always been the Republicans' thing, ever since the Watergate scandal there have been laws in place to diminish the power of billionaires and transnational corporations on our politics. Until the Supreme Court blew them up with its Citizen's United case. But the American people get it that no matter how much the Republicans may want to serve the corporate powers that be, this is no way to run a democracy. Today - in more than 50 towns across Vermont - citizens took up the movement to get money out of politics and overturn Citizens United.

It was Vermont's Town Meeting Day - a 200-year tradition that allows Vermonters from around the state to gather and talk about and vote on issues that they feel are most important to not just their town or state - but the nation as a whole. This has been going on for more than two centuries - and this year - the issue that's at the top of the list is Citizens United. Vermonters voted today to send a message to their Congressional delegation to overturn Citizens United - declare that corporations are not people - and end the corporate buy-out of our democracy. As one of the authors of this resolution - Bill Butler from Jericho, Vermont said, “You start putting these together, I think you have the beginning of the most dynamic political movement in this country. It’s because people are realizing they have to do it and they have to do it now.”

This is movement politics at its best. It never starts in Washington, DC - it starts on towns and cities across America. Movements are built locally - and they catch fire - and when their voice gets loud enough - when the parade gets big enough - then a politician will run out in front to carry the flag and say, "This is MY parade!" So bring the movement - the parade - to your town or state - go to Move to Amend.org and FreeSpeechForPeople.org- and make sure that our democracy is not stolen by the fat cat's favorite candidate ever again.

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