Who are these people and why are they buying our democracy?

Robert Reich via MoveOn.org Civic Action

Dear friend,

$176 million.

That's the amount of money 158 families—and the companies they own or control—have already contributed to Republican and Democratic presidential candidates.¹ $176 million—that's half of the total funds contributed thus far in the 2016 presidential race.²

Who are these people and why are they buying our democracy? 

I tackle those big questions and more in three minutes in The Investments of the 158, my latest video with MoveOn. 

Please watch it and share it now.

How much more evidence do we need that our democracy is in crisis?

Please watch and share my latest video, which amounts to a giant wake-up call to reverse Citizens United and get big money out of politics, once and for all.

Thanks for all you do.

--Robert Reich

Sources:

1. "Buying Power," The New York Times, October 10, 2015
http://act.moveon.org/go/76?t=5&akid=160246.19913724.wHJg5F

2. Ibid.

MONDAY, DECEMBER 7, 2015

LOOK WHO’S BUYING AMERICAN DEMOCRACY

According to an investigation by the New York Times, half of all the money contributed so far to Democratic and Republican presidential candidates—$176 million—has come from just 158 families, along with the companies they own or control.

Who are these people?  They’re almost entirely white, rich, older and male—even though America is becoming increasingly black and brown, young, female, and with declining household incomes.

According to the report, most of these big contributors live in exclusive neighborhoods where they have private security guards instead of public police officers, private health facilities rather than public parks and pools.

Most send their kids and grand kids to elite private schools rather than public schools. They fly in private jets and get driven in private limousines rather than rely on public transportation.

They don’t have to worry about whether Social Security or Medicare will be there for them in their retirement because they’ve put away huge fortunes. They don’t have to worry about climate change because they don’t live in flimsy homes that might collapse in a hurricane, or where water is scarce, or food supplies endangered.

It’s doubtful that most of these 158 are contributing to these campaigns out of the goodness of their hearts or a sense of public responsibility. They’re largely making investments, just the way they make other investments.

And the success of these investments depends on whether their candidates get elected, and will lower their taxes even further, expand tax loopholes, shred health and safety and environmental regulations so their companies can make even more money, and cut Social Security and Medicare and programs for the poor—and thereby allow these 158 and others like them to secede even more from the rest of our society.

These people are, after all, are living in their own separate society, and they want to elect people who will represent them, not the rest of us.

How much more evidence do we need that our system is in crisis? How long before we make it work for all of us instead of a handful at the top? We must not let them buy our democracy. We must get big money out of politics. Publicly-finance political campaigns, disclose all sources of campaign funds, and reverse “Citizens United.”

ROBERT B. REICH, Chancellor’s Professor of Public Policy at the University of California at Berkeley and Senior Fellow at the Blum Center for Developing Economies, was Secretary of Labor in the Clinton administration. Time Magazine named him one of the ten most effective cabinet secretaries of the twentieth century. He has written fourteen books, including the best sellers “Aftershock, “The Work of Nations," and"Beyond Outrage." He is also a founding editor of the American Prospect magazine and chairman of Common Cause. His film, INEQUALITY FOR ALL is available on Netflix, iTunes, Amazon. His new book, "SAVING CAPITALISM: For the Many, Not the Few" is out 9/29. 

The TRUTH will set you FREE.