Midterm Spending in post-Citizens United Elections | National Catholic Reporter

Midterm Spending in post-Citizens United Elections | National Catholic Reporter by MSW. MGB: Let me start by saying that the problem is not money in politics - its too much money by too few people - in short, the problem is capitalism.  The the free market kind libertarians keep mentioning as an apology for big business, but the monopolistic kind that hires workers on its terms, not on mutual terms, and restricts the number of competitors to as small a number as possible.  Being able to do that takes a lot of money, hence contributions - but contribution limits won't fix capitalism.  Employee-ownership will.



As for spending the money for Ebola or some such nonsense, that will only happen with higher taxes on the rich - the funds spent on ads are not transferable.  If there were not political ads, there would be more ads for beer, cars and sugary cereal.



The people who make the negative ads seem to have an exemption for slander, but the big money has now become the ads that run in presidential primary years - because they are aimed at other partisans (in the general election, people who have made up their mind tend to tune out).  the right wingers seem to be products of the College Republican Club system, which rewards cut-throat politics.  (Full disclosure, I was my CR chair in college and it was the most inactive chapter in the history of the party). Still, they are nasty rich kids with feelings of entitlement on most campuses, which is not good training for real life unless you are a partisan hack or corporate capitalist.



The issues make for interesting analysis.  ISIS and Ebola ads play to those Republicans who dream of Reagan - and no one is up for any more Bush bashing, even though ISIL would not exist were it not for Rumsfeld's stupidity in not reconstituting the old Iraqi Army.  Ebola talk is just ignorant, but ignorance seems a premium on the right wing.  Still, the influence of Obama For America should not be underestimated.  They are running their usual ground war - and that may make all the difference in who turns out to vote.