But prior to Citizens United, you had a GOP shameless enough to put openly partisan judges into SCOTUS. That allowed them to rule favorably on Citizens United. So it starts with GOP shamelessness, and who knows when that started
No. The correct answer is: We the People let bureaucracy metastasize like a malignant tumor in the body politic. Whether we choose to look at the left side of the tumor or the right side is irrelevant. We have way too much government because we have way too little unbiased oversight & involvement.
A major factor for sure, but not the only one. There is also the strategic growth of right-wing media, without which the great American divide would not be possible, among several others. This has been a long time in the making
It started with Buckley v. Valeo ('75) which equated spending money with free speech. We never recovered, and Citizens United just ripped off the (non-functional) band-aids that had been applied.
And how did we get there? Explained in the book ‘Dark Money’ by Jane Mayer. And where do we go from here? Get informed, organized, and active before it’s too late. Know their agenda so we can form a counter message and movement asap.
Money, God & LIES: 3 pillars of the movement that led to Trump's DISTURBING victory
A well-funded PROPAGANDA machine that EXPLOITS people's cultural FEARS, turning them away from THEIR economic interests & toward an AUTHORITARIAN movement to END DEMOCRACY
Yes, and 24 years of hacked voting machines. Every election since 2000 has pushed congress farther and farther to the right with no consequences for idiotic behavior. Rs don't fear the ballot box at all.
the dems had chances to turn that around. some of us saw this coming. its been orchestrated for 40 years. maybe this is why gen x tells everyone to fuck off?
my grandfather was a bit of a "freethinker" and actually read books during the mccarthy era. billy graham was what he would have said was promoting "sawdust religion", well before ronnie was around. critical thinking used to be something farmers were good at.
Citizens United dealt a brutal blow and McCutchen finished the job. They both need to be resolved with an immediacy that is virtually impossible in the current climate.
The logical end of letting anyone donate as much as they want to candidates for government is the richest man in the world being allowed unfettered access to all govt computer systems by the winning candidate that he bought the election for... 🤷
And that’s where the movement for reformation starts. Bernie has proven there’s no real working inside of the Democratic Party in a post citizens united world. This is a PMC party.
Also:
Powell Memo
ALEC formation
FedSoc formation
Trump becomes KGB useful idiot
Oligarch takeover of GOP
Rush Limbaugh
Formation of Fox “news” as propaganda media
Bush v. Gore
Facebook & Russian disinfo
Putin takeover of GOP
Shelby County
James Comey
Partial marks:
Right wing media eco-system
Years of starvation of public education
Social media algorithms
Belief in American exceptionalism
Failure to prosecute right wing terrorism
Citizens United is at fault that the USA is at risk by now, that organization implemented the same political techniques that Russian Oligarchs do in Russia and is the reason why Russian Oligarchs help Trump win the Election. In other words, the Citizens United organization exists to rig the votes.
I’m deeply disappointed that Congress has had no appetite for laws that would undo the harms of Citizens United. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse and a few others want them, but they get nowhere. 😠
We need to stop going high and start going low - sometimes the only way the bully shuts up is if you punch them in the mouth. You can only ignore it and be passive for so long.
How can you be passive through this time? And even if you go passive it is going to be a false peace. There's no peace when it comes to facists and this kind of people aren't going to go soft on you. What the GOP wants is a modern way of slavery, the same way as Russia and Belarus have +
They are going to take all our earned benefits and rights and next thing you'll know is that they are going to use fear mongering towards masses to force them to join the military and then by having their own way with teens indoctrinated to join the war for a "better nation" #FuckTrump #Antifa
100%. I remember gathering signatures & donating to groups. We gathered enough to actually Move to Amend, but then crickets. Huge disappointment for both parties. We are now reaping what they all sowed and that 1% are in charge of everything. They own us. Politically, freedom is dead.
It started well before that but that was part of the plan. If you aren't old enough to have lived through it like I did, listen to this podcast. I couldn't put words on it but I knew it was going on, and this explains everything. They want "big money" to rule everything https://www.levernews.com/masterplan/
Yep and when Obama and Biden held the govt they didn’t bother to pass legislation to overturn it. Shame on both of them. So we live in dictatorship because they did nothing.
Yes! Also, Bush Sr. Reagan and their various stooges, North etc
And before that, Nixon, and Hoover, and McCarthy. A whole long horrible trail of right wing 💩
I started raising the alarm about Citizens United when it was enacted. It was and is a perversion of democracy. Nothing good could ever come out of equating corporations with people and permitting essentially unsupervised amounts of money to be poured into the system. Fucking SCOTUS.
Without a doubt!
“It violates the essence of what made America a great country in its political system. Now it’s just an oligarchy, with unlimited political bribery.”
- President Jimmy Carter re Citizens United
Ronald Reagan, Rush Limbaugh, The evangelical right, long-lived racism, The Tea Party, the radicalization of the Tech Bros, neo-liberalism in the Dem Party, allowing monopolization of media networks and a bunch of people who never believed it could happen. Then, dark money.
Yeah. And my victim-blaming parents, who still insist I created my own problems when they're the ones who violently brainwashed me into believing an abusive psycho in the sky would smite me if I thought his name wrong. They still don't understand how they directly support fascism with their tithes.
Yes, agreed - but there is another related layer. It's complex but must be better understood: the rise of the digital age led to a steady diminution of public investments in durable public goods which has undermined public faith in democracy. The Dems were warned - but did nothing.
Since we're on the subject of $$ in politics, why not make these blackout/strikes progressive? Week one 1 day. Week 2, 2 days, Week 3, etc. Can Americans go 3 days without buying shit? Business sure as hell will notice, and maybe rethink their "contributions".
I’m beginning to think it might be better to have a day where we all go take our money out of the banks. Now there’s a statement. My luck Trump would just replace money with his stupid bitcoin.
You haven't yet? I'm just leaving enough for bills, and that's it. It's a nice quarter jar collection I'm starting. That crypto shit should be a big concern... Not that our cash is any better RIP FDIC. CU's are a better bet, but for how long?
Citizen's United was a disaster. Today's barbarism started in 1970 and 71: neoliberalism (libertarianism today) by the Kochs et al. The wealthy created their infrastructure, think tanks, researched, planned, funded, managed their plans, to own income, wealth, power, politicians, and end democracy.
Absolutely! And Senator Sheldon Whitehouse has been warning us about this ever since that case ruling. And what allowed fox news to spew unlimited propaganda without accountability was the repeal of the Fairness Doctrine by Reagan. That opened the floodgates for lies all over the airwaves.
That and the major faults in the American character. Of course the worst people in human history would eventually develop a "government" like this. It was inevitable because Americans are scum.
I think the insurance companies should be treated as people under Citizens United, and charged with terrorism against their customers. And throw in the 8th amendment to boot
Big corporate money and unlimited contributions from billionaires fucked up our political system. IMHO nobody should be able to campaign, and fund raise until 6 months before the election and donations should be limited.
JD Vance thinks that America needs a dictator or as his buddy Curtis yarvin calls it a national CEO. This has been the stated goals from people like Kurtis yarvin since 2012. https://youtu.be/VeVhHNSe9Ks?si=UbXeJ33kOp51XmZS
We should have burned that court to the ground the day they passed that insanity.
"Those with the most cash get the most representation"
Just what the founding fathers fought for.
And MitchMcconnel mainly. He was one that made sure alito and clarence were always protected. And then the whole refusing to impeach twice. Any convicted felon can b prez. But u can NEVER b in any govt ofc once fully impeached
that is absolutely true....there are so many issues around that that I wish someone could explain to me how it is constitutional...not on the free speech side but the special person side...if a special person is a person who has free speech don't they also fall under 13th amendment
Comments
He also said that we don't need the voting rights act because there is no bigotry and racism in the former slave states. 💩💩💩
“The long national nightmare is over” - Gerald Ford
“Government isn’t the solution to the problem, government IS the problem.” - Ronald Reagan
Continuing on to Citizens United and turmp.
All it did was require during the top of the hour news break to give both sides of a subject
Right wing propaganda has had a major effect but the FD wouldn’t have stopped it
A well-funded PROPAGANDA machine that EXPLOITS people's cultural FEARS, turning them away from THEIR economic interests & toward an AUTHORITARIAN movement to END DEMOCRACY
https://www.salon.com/2025/02/18/his-mission-is-to-eradicate-woke-jesus-how-money-lies-and-religion-are-abused-to-gut-democracy/
why would you even suggest such a thing?
https://smartelections.substack.com/p/strange-numbers
Also:
Powell Memo
ALEC formation
FedSoc formation
Trump becomes KGB useful idiot
Oligarch takeover of GOP
Rush Limbaugh
Formation of Fox “news” as propaganda media
Bush v. Gore
Facebook & Russian disinfo
Putin takeover of GOP
Shelby County
James Comey
Right wing media eco-system
Years of starvation of public education
Social media algorithms
Belief in American exceptionalism
Failure to prosecute right wing terrorism
Justices and their decisions.
In some, we are merely at the apogee of the #Regressive/Progrssive cycle again.
But Citizen's United, the legal framework for open campaign bribery, surely leads to Corporate Oligarchy in a straight line.
Once these disgusting Nazis are defeated America has some serious work to do.
One of the first things is reversing Citizens United. Get these rich fuck's money out of our politics.
May this regime's demise be swift and severe.
https://www.levernews.com/masterplan/
combined with the MIC
combined with deregulation, which led to the GFC
combined with stimulus of finance and manufacturing sectors at the expense of the populace
combined with evangelical christianity
combined with systemic racism
And before that, Nixon, and Hoover, and McCarthy. A whole long horrible trail of right wing 💩
Stupid people vote for stupid people.
Rush Limbaugh.
“It violates the essence of what made America a great country in its political system. Now it’s just an oligarchy, with unlimited political bribery.”
- President Jimmy Carter re Citizens United
Sold stocks of objectionable companies- transferred to ethical ones…
Tells you how companies donate to campaigns!
Coming to a town near you
Each voter who either voted for this or opted not to participate is how we got here.
If citizens are too freaking dumb to realize that a bombardment of commercials is propaganda, they freaking deserve exactly what they get.
What the fuck are you even on about dude?
"Those with the most cash get the most representation"
Just what the founding fathers fought for.