Blog Credo

The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.

H.L. Mencken

Sunday, February 21, 2021

Can We Chase The Money Changers From The Temple?

 Nancy LeTourneau takes a run at a specific cluster of dark money groups that surround conservative court packing efforts, including the Judicial Crisis Network, the Federalist Society and now the 85 Fund. 

It's helpful, obviously, to look at reactionary politics in America as consisting of two distinct groups. First, you have the Trumpists. These are largely petty bourgeousie from the exurbs: plumbers, small business owners and others who feel squeezed and blame it on people of color. They feel their privileged status as white people slipping away and invest their hopes in a thrice divorced con artist. Evangelicals are a huge part of this. This is where most of the votes come from.

Secondly, you have a coalition of antigovernmental libertarians. These are either ideologically motivated or motivated from self-interest and often both simultaneously. These are the billionaires who are trying to rig the courts for a generation to strike down efforts to constrain great wealth. 

If the MAGA crowd are populists, the Federalist Society are plutocrats. Thus, their interests overlap in voter suppression. 

The most critical piece of legislation that will die under the filibuster is HR1, a voting rights bill. All across the country the racist MAGAs and the plutocrats are working to prevent Americans in certain areas from voting. 

The MAGA crowd is largely unreachable, and luckily, the actuarial table will reduce their numbers yearly. The plutocrats can best be exposed by sunlight laws to disclose how this dark money sluices around our politics. 

I'm skeptical that "campaign finance laws" will magically erase the advantage that racism gives the GOP in the Senate and state houses, but exposing the money that eats at the heart of our democracy could. 

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