Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse tells it like it is: 'one crew, one plan, one cancer in the body politic'
Daily Kos
In my impossible fantasies, the bulk of Democratic Senators would sign onto Whitehouse’s take here and submit it as an Op-Ed to The Washington Post. But that, of course, isn’t going to happen.
Here’s Whitehouse in full. (If you
prefer, you can read it at X/Twitter. )
Our current situation should give Dems a rejuvenating chance to focus better on fixing what’s gone wrong in America.
We face three huge
threats: persistent internal attacks on our democracy, unbridled climate
upheaval, and a captured Court with some deeply corrupt justices
Behind each threat is
dark money; massive anonymous political spending by special interests who hide
their identities from the public.
The political class
has reoriented itself to this new reality, pivoting to the big secret spenders.
Voters notice they’re not so important anymore.
An entire dark-money
ecosystem has been spawned, with front groups, ‘Donors Trusts,’ coordinating
501c3s and c4s, and superPACs.
This whole filthy
bestiary of influence is new (or refocused and expanded) since Citizens United.
It didn’t used to be this way; it doesn’t have to be this way.
Democrats keep voting
to get rid of dark money, and Republicans keep voting to protect dark money,
but voters have no idea. We basically haven’t told them.
Which is pathetic
because voters hate dark money with a passion, Republicans, independents and
Democrats alike. Polling is off the charts.
(When done, that is;
too often pollsters blow the dust each year off their polling questions from
the ‘90s and this question doesn’t get asked!)
Climate change is out
of control because of a massive dark-money politics and propaganda operation
run by the fossil fuel industry.
Before Citizens
United, climate was a bipartisan concern (see McCain 2008 platform);
fossil-fuel dark money killed bipartisanship.
The Court was captured
by a dark-money operation funded by creepy polluter billionaires and managed by
their creepy minion Leonard Leo.
The ‘amenable’
justices are instructed via coordinated flotillas of dark-money amici curiae,
with correlation near perfect between instruction and result.
Republicans are
complicit in all this because the dark money behind these schemes is also the
dark money billions behind their political operations.
It’s a trifecta; dark
money is behind climate denial, Court capture and corruption of Congress — one
crew, one plan, one cancer in the body politic.
Democrats should be
blowing the whistle on the whole dark-money rot.It explains so much, it has
obvious villains, and it has the added benefit of being true.
We are in a war for
our future and we should behave that way.
Working out the
details of that behavior should be a paramount priority.
