Today the Washington Post exposes another fact summarized this time in the line of a now old song: "Money doesn't talk, it swears." Big money donors are getting unprecedented "access" to officeholders, which is a wink and a nod way of saying large-scale bribery. Now in the stretch run of the 2014 elections, the latest SC permissions have led to even greater amounts that the very rich spend on buying their politicians and the government they want, as the Post writes:
Together, 310 donors gave a combined $11.6 million more by this summer than would have been allowed before the ruling. Their contributions favored Republican candidates and committees over Democratic ones by 2 to 1.
In a number of articles on his site (such as this one) Bill Moyers has been chronicling the spending and the effects of "access," or "influence." Although outnumbered, Dems have their billionaires too, but as a contributor to Moyers site finds, the big money corrupts the liberal side too.
As immense wealth is concentrated in fewer hands, these super-rich support their own interests at the expense of the many, especially those at the bottom. So it's not terribly surprising that Mitch McConnell was "caught" on tape promising billionaires that he will keep voting against increases in the minimum wage.
The situation is so widespread that activists are turning to ballot initiatives to raise the minimum wage, although ballot initiatives themselves are most often a plaything of the wealthy.
Washington politicians are increasingly millionaires themselves, and their billionaire connections insure lucrative "fees" and cushy positions after their "service." Money in politics doesn't talk, it swears. More specifically it says: fuck you.
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