AFP sponsored anti-medicaid expansion event with Delegate Tag Greason and Randy Minchew. The sign behind Greason reads “HANDS OFF MY HEALTH CARE”
We can’t ignore how money is spent in political campaigns because, plainly, those who contribute expect something in return.
If you give a $100 contribution hoping that will offset the cost of a candidate’s flyer or postage, there’s little expectation that this relatively unsubstantial sum will buy a candidate’s undying obeisance to your wishes should your candidate prevail in November.
But what if you are contributing hundreds of thousands of dollars in ads that your dream media team creates, if you are glorifying “the candidate” and slander-blasting any opponent to kingdom come with half-truths and whopper lies, if you bundle the contributions of others to show the reach of your influence, if you provide endorsements from organizations that you control that appear independent of each other (but are not), and, if you do snazzy multi-color snail mail mailings, robo-calls, push polls, social media, print and electronic blast “press” releases tearing down the opponent, who may be financially unable to shout back with anything like equal force, while, all the time, continuing to deify your candidate?
The scale of influence enjoyed by this Daddy Warbucks’ species of no-holds-barred contributor tilts the scales of our electoral process from anything fair to grossly inappropriate because the candidate elected by such extraordinary largesse is beholden to the contributor who brought him or her to our dysfunctional political hoedown – the U.S. Congress.
This pay-to-play phenomenon appears to be the rule, as evidenced by the fact that candidates raise millions to get jobs that pay less than two hundred thousand dollars.
We have to know what these people who make these obscene campaign contributions are after from their “indentured servants” (what they become when the “candidate” transforms into an elected” officeholder”).
The poster child duo of high-spending plutocrats are the brothers, David and Charles Koch (pronounced Coke), who have a $44 Billion oil and gas fortune that they write checks against to promote their hand-picked candidates.
Incidentally, the Koch brothers are pointing their dollar spewing political propaganda machine at the voters in Virginia.
The principal front group they use is called “Americans for [their] Prosperity (sarcasm added).”
In 1980, David Koch spent millions trying to be elected as the Libertarian Vice-presidential candidate. Governor Ronald Reagan challenged incumbent President Jimmy Carter that same presidential election year. Reagan’s conservatism, however, wasn’t conservative enough for David to support Reagan instead.
David promised to end Social Security, corporate taxes and a host of other federal programs.
The multi-billion dollar toxic fossil fuel business that the Koch brothers oversee favors no regulation as their astronomical profits are enlarged by us folk absorbing their “hidden costs,” you know, what it would cost them to avoid our bad health, injury, even death, and medical expenses.
The Koch brothers unsurprisingly support drilling offshore.
State Delegate Barbara Comstock brags that she introduced a bill “for [the] offshore exploration of energy.”
The Koch Brothers oppose all health care reform, and any expansion of Medicaid funds even though we already have the necessary funds paid with our taxes.
Ms. Comstock opposes expanding Medicaid in Virginia.
The Koch brothers think climate change is a fiction, so does Barbara; they want corporate money in elections, Barbara would like to have some in her campaigns.
The Koch Brothers are chanting Barbara’s name.
The President of Americans for Prosperity, Tim Phillips, said, “Barbara Comstock is … willing to fight for our principles …”
If you want to vote for the Koch brothers’ principles, then vote for Barbara.
But, if you want to vote in your own best interest instead, vote for Supervisor John Foust in November.