PDA

View Full Version : The Meaningless Sideshow Begins : Matt Tiiabbi Rolling Stone.



Blue
1/3/2012, 11:47 PM
Great article for conservatives and liberals alike. But I'm sure somebody will find something to argue about.

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/blogs/taibblog/iowa-the-meaningless-sideshow-begins-20120103#ixzz1iQ2L50MG

Sooner5030
1/5/2012, 09:07 PM
I usually find Tiiabi too one sided but he did a pretty good job in this one. I like:


If that sounds like a glib take on a free election system that allows the public to choose whichever candidate it likes best without any censorship or overt state interference, so be it. But the ugly reality, as Dylan Ratigan continually points out, is that the candidate who raises the most money wins an astonishing 94% of the time in America.

That damning statistic just confirms what everyone who spends any time on the campaign trail knows, which is that the presidential race is not at all about ideas, but entirely about raising money.

The auctioned election process is designed to reduce the field to two candidates who will each receive hundreds of millions of dollars apiece from the same pool of donors. Just take a look at the lists of top donors for Obama and McCain from the last election in 2008.

Obama’s top 20 list included:

Goldman Sachs ($1,013,091)
JPMorgan Chase & Co ($808,799)
Citigroup Inc ($736,771)
WilmerHale LLP ($550,668)
Skadden, Arps et al ($543,539)
UBS AG ($532,674), and...
Morgan Stanley ($512,232).



McCain’s list, meanwhile, included (drum roll please):

JPMorgan Chase & Co ($343,505)
Citigroup Inc ($338,202)
Morgan Stanley ($271,902)
Goldman Sachs ($240,295)
UBS AG ($187,493)
Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher ($160,346)
Greenberg Traurig LLP ($147,437), and...
Lehman Brothers ($126,557).


Not sure when it happened but once we reached the tipping point where the majority of the public viewed the government as the entity to solve all problems (rather than protect our freedoms) we started something that is irreversible. Now regulation can be enacted in the name of protecting citizens but it really just provides barriers to entry for potential competition and those connected get to author the legislation or policy are the ones that gain. The system is gamed.....unions....the financial sector...PACs...etc....have effectively found a way to appease the voters with clever names for legislation but get what they want out of the legislation.

Blue
1/5/2012, 09:29 PM
I usually hate reading anything from Rolling Stone as a conservative, but I think he nailed it.

Fraggle145
1/5/2012, 11:00 PM
Pretty much what I think about it.

Ton Loc
1/9/2012, 10:08 AM
Looks like the top 20 knew what they were doing in their donations to the last election. They supported the winner and gave more to Obama, but covered the backend by giving McCain a little money just in case.

Reminds me of the craps table in Vegas.