The Worst Democracy Money Can Buy

US midterms set to become most expensive elections in country's history

Ewen MacAskill in Washington
guardian.co.uk, Monday 4 October 2010 18.08 BST


The US midterm elections are on course to become the most expensive in history next month, estimated at well over $5bn (£3.15bn) – an indication of how much is riding on the outcome of the biggest test of US public opinion since the 2008 White House race.

With the Democrats facing electoral disaster and Barack Obama battling to save his presidency, the Republicans are resurgent, their campaign chests bursting with money from big corporations whose spending power has been unleashed by a supreme court ruling earlier this year providing anonymity for donors.

The estimated $5bn dwarfs the $1bn spent on the White House race.

Public Citizen, a non-profit organisation that tracks corporate spending on elections and lobbying, said today Republicans had received six times more cash than the Democrats last month, and this could rise to 10 to one this month. Much of the cash had come from Wall Street, banking and the health and pharmaceuticals industry, it said.

"We are going to see record amounts. This is the first year in which all limits are removed. The supreme court ruling reverses a century of political tradition in the US in which corporations are not supposed to get involved," said Craig Holman, Public Citizen's representative on Capitol Hill. ...........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/oct/04/us-midterms-most-expensive-elections

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plus a few more. :patriot:

A state of massive ongoing hallucinations.

I opened my fridge last night, and there was a hologram of the candidate for California governor slot standing on the top shelf, explaining why she was better than Jerry Brown, and telling me if I didn't offer to vote for her, the hologram would eat up everything in the fridge.

This whole campaign season sucks. The people who are running for office are clearly in a class far above and beyond the average person, and once we vote them in, they could care less about us.

folks i called while phone banking were very unhappy about all the endless negative ads.


On edit, very funny post!

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We could put every American to work in some form of advertising or other and end the recession...

:sarcasm:

It seems that the right to free speech is now the Money Talks amendment.

If our party had guts thats how they should frame it.

What utter BS.

all this money benefits local economies. Look at where the money goes... printers, mailing, office supplies, freight, advertising agencies, tv and radio channels, newspapers and lots of small businesses that benefit their local economy.

And 9% of the $$ Meg spends in CA goes to state sales tax... call it "Meg's Stimulus Plan". I hope she spends twice as much... and still loses :rofl:

Folks will search out the criticism and post it, it seems. Now we're getting quotes from British journalists about our political system. Inaccurate information, too. Feh!

Maybe I can get my hands on some of those billions by consulting/designing; maybe I can get a politicians ear and moralize.