Electoral Viagra, Nihilistic Ayn Rand Objectivists Who Champion Complete And Utter Radical Individualism, “Small” Political Donors, Darrell “Torquemada” Issa (R-Salem), Sheldon Adelson Is A Terrible Person, and The Mittstorm Cometh 3: The Search For A Good Copyright Lawyer.
Good day, and welcome to the Daily Sausage.
First up, we have this article from The Atlantic’s Norman Ornstein, suggesting that the United States should require all citizens to vote. I’m both in favor of and ardently opposed to this idea. I’m in favor of this idea because I believe that requiring all citizens to vote would drive up participation in the political process, that more people would become involved, and that the US would have a better democracy. However, I’m ardently opposed to this idea because I realize that the 50% of Americans that don’t vote right now will not become any less informed and will simply flip a coin when deciding on a candidate for office.
Frankly, I would rather have a small but informed electorate consisting of people that have examined the issues and chosen a candidate based on their beliefs than a mouthbreathing mob blindly picking people for office based on coin flips, reading tea leaves, eenie meenie miney moe, or whatever else people use to pick stuff they have no clue about.
Next up, an article from The Atlantic’s Conor Friedersdorf, where we discuss the President’s choice in picking the “straw man” arguments from his opponents, versus more nuanced critique.
There is a quote I’d like to pull from the article, that I believe undermines the entire argument:
“It’s very evident from this passage and from a great deal of what he has to say about his opponents that Obama thinks he is running against a band of nihilistic Ayn Rand objectivists who champion complete and utter radical individualism.” – Yural Levin
Levin isn’t an intellectual slouch, but he clearly has no idea who has picked up the banner of conservatism in the 21st century. While his argument may have been true even as recently as a decade ago, the modern Republican party consists mostly of a motley assemblage of racists, homophobes, xenophobes, bigots, goldbugs, Know-Nothings, and gun nuts that have been thrown together because they literally have nowhere else to go, electorally speaking. There are principled conservatives that articulate their viewpoints well out there, but they do not constitute the majority, or even a major minority, of the party anymore. So, when President Obama campaigns against what seems to be a straw man argument, the truth of the matter is that that’s the argument his opponents are presenting because, in Levin’s own words, they really are “a band of nihilistic Ayn Rand objectivists who champion complete and utter radical individualism.” The only thing I’d add to that description is “who are members of the 1% of wealthiest Americans.” to the end.
Moving on, Senate Republicans have successfully filibustered the DISCLOSE Campaign Spending Act, 44-51. Yes, you read that right. 51 Senators voted to at least vote on it. 44 Republicans said “We don’t even want to vote on it.” Now, the argument behind the Republican’s filibuster is that the DISCLOSE Act, which would require organizations that spend $10,000 or more during an election cycle to file a report identifying any donors that gave it $10,000 or more. The reason the GOP filibustered this bill (other than the fact that the Democratic president is blackity black black black) is that FreedomWorks, whose most recent success is Astroturfing the Tea Party into existence, listed this as a “key vote” and said “The DISCLOSE Act fails to preserve the anonymity of small donors.”
Now, maybe this is just a personal problem of perception, but when I think “small donors” in political terms, I think little old ladies and college kids giving $5, $10, or $25. For ten thousand dollars, I would would expect the political candidate I donate to to come to my house, tidy the place up, wash my car, do my grocery shopping, and do all the other crap I don’t want to do, because ten grand is a lot of fucking money.
Although, I suppose when your candidate is Mitt Romney, hosting $50,000-a-plate fundraisers in the Hamptons, $10,000 really does make you a small donor.
A laudable goal, certainly. After all, taxpayer funds earmarked for administrative use shouldn’t be spent on transporting members of the Administration around to raise money for the President.
The only problem: it never happened. Only one member of the Obama Administration, Senior Advisor David Plouffe, has ever appeared at a PrioritiesUSA event.
We can only wonder where our Grand Inquisitor was in 2006, when the Bush II Administration was using the Office of Public Affairs as an extension of the Republican National Committee in the White House.
Frontline has released an explosive investigation of GOP Super-Donor Sheldon Adelson, alleging that he made his Macau casino fortune through deals with the Chinese mob and may have violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.
Adelson, by the way, has pledged “limitless” funds to beat President Obama in the fall.
Someone once told me that you can either be a moral man or a rich man, but that you can’t be both. I don’t believe that’s true. However, if you said that it’s much, much easier to become wealthy by being a complete and total piece of shit human being, I wouldn’t argue the point.
Finally, The Mittstorm Cometh III: The Search For A Good Copyright Lawyer
The Romney Campaign, in an effort to hit back at the Obama campaign over the devastating “Firms” ad, which in this writer’s opinion is right up there with Lyndon B. Johnson’s “Daisy” ad against Barry Goldwater, posted a new ad to their account which featured the President singing a few bars from Rev. Al Green’s “Let’s Stay Together”.
I’m terrified of the Romney Campaign’s ability to raise virtually infinite amounts of money, but at the same time I continue to be amazed at the utter ineptness of their campaign.
Mittstorm Rating: Level 1 – Everyone knows the even ones are the only good ones.
