My Billionaire Can Beat Up Your Billionaire; Political Discourse in the American Oligarchy

Because Money = Speech!

A California hedge fund investor has pledged $100 million in contributions to pro-environmentalist congressional campaigns, bolstering the battle against climate change.

Billionaire Tom Steyer on Wednesday night hosted Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada and six other Democratic lawmakers for a fundraiser at his San Francisco home and is planning an ad campaign for candidates who support tough action on climate change.

Steyer, founder of the hedge fund Farallon Capital, plans to spend $50 million of his own money and raise another $50 million from other donors for the November midterm elections.

Before you on the Right begin to wail about this, let's not forget that the Koch brothers have bought themselves a couple of states with their money, enough so that politicians will trip over themselves to take their calls.

But thanks to Johnny Roberts and the Supremes, this is where we are. Steyer pours in millions for his cause, as does Mayor "Nanny" Bloomberg, both Koch brothers, and others, such as Sheldon Adleman, Ken Langone, Rex Sinquefield, George Soros, and the list goes on. Politicians answer those guys' calls, because like in the 1960s, when bags of cash were delivered to national political campaigns, money is speech.

We still have a say, but they only listen to us every election cycle. For example, Adleman spent many tens of millions trying to persuade Republican primary voters that Newt Gingrich should be the GOP's man in `12. But Adleman is so rich that fifty million to him is like a hundred bucks (or less) to most people. Linda McMahon spent about $100 million in two elections in failed attempts to buy win a Senate seat in Connecticut (to be fair, self-funding campaigns has always been legal).

The rest of the time, they don't seem to much care what we have to say. Not unless they know, for a certainty, that we'll reliably go to the voting booth and vote on that issue.

Maybe it's sort of always been that way. Now, it's become rather blatant. About the only thing that's still illegal is naked vote-buying, where money is given specifically for a certain vote on a bill. But the difference between saying "I'll give you $$$$$ if you vote for/against this bill" and "I'm giving you $$$$$ and I really support/oppose this issue" would seem to be just quibbling.