Papantonio: The Billionaire GOP Puppeteers

[GoLeft TV]

The Republican primary season has seen some pretty intense ups and downs for all of the candidates. At some point throughout the last year, almost every individual candidate has appeared to be a shoe-in for the nomination, only to see their leads erased after a few weeks. What’s causing this constant flux? The answer is simple – Money. Billionaires like Foster Freiss and Sheldon Adelson, and even the Koch Brothers keep doubling down their dollars on their candidate du jour, which results in the wild swings in popularity. And at the end of the day, these billionaires will have the final say in who gets the Republican nomination. Mike Papantonio talks about the billionaires who are pulling the GOP strings with best-selling author Thomas Frank.

[Leopolds Ghost]

1. Thomas Frank is the spiritual godfather of the modern day populist movement. n/t

[tclambert]

2. The Citizens United decision was based on the assertion that advertising doesn't work.

That was the supremely stupid 5's justification for dismissing the argument that massive amounts of money could corrupt our political system. They simply asserted that it wouldn't. Yet an awful lot of history suggests advertising DOES work. The side that can pay for more and better TV commercials has a decided advantage.

They had a nice historical note there, too, that Americans have been trying to fight the corrupting influence of money on politics for over 100 years. However, the people with money dearly want to be able to buy political influence with it. It turns out to be a really lucrative investment. So this war may go back and forth for a long, long time.