Seriously though, that is an extraordinary amount of coin, much of it wasted on the airways, where we the people either hit the mute button on the remote, or figured out a way to tune out, turn off, run away from it. The word "saturated" came up, when discussing this topic.
What with Citizens United, and anonymous funding, including foreign interests-- things have clearly become out of hand. "Just about anything else" would be a good answer, because it is shameful that this amount of cash was blown on political campaigning for just the presidential position.
The first thing that came to mind when I saw this thought provoking graphic, was *education*. In our area, teachers have been laid off, some schools consolidated & closed.
A local school asked for a bond measure-- sighting the issue that the text book they are using now, states that Bill Clinton is currently the president!
• Help for the Homeless
• Medical funding for those in need
• Disaster relief for the East Coast
What is your response to "I'd rather have spent it on....."
3 comments:
"electoral reform" ... ie, undo citizens united, outlaw campaigning more than x-months before election, mandate sunshine on x-yrs of the candidates finances, etc ... in other words, stop with the non-stop campaigns, stop with the unltd secret money, and stop withholding vital candidate info ... and oh please use some of the overkill contributions to sponsor a bill to kill the electoral college crapdance so my vote is worth just as much as every other voter!
I'm curious what percentage of this figure came from people and groups determined to elect Romney/Ryan?
Karl Rove's GPS/Crossroads allegedly took in $365 million from donors. I heard this figure on the Ed Show.
Overall, the election results were beyond my wildest dreams. Not only did Obama/Biden win reelection, marriage equality bills became law in ME, MD and WA.
In NY, Kirstin Gillibrand held onto her senate seat and Louise Slaughter held onto her congress seat. In MA, Elizabeth Warren defeated the Cosmo coverboy, Scott Brown.
In CA, Mary Bono Mack was defeated by a pro-gay Hispanic! And, Mary's hubby, FL's antigay hubby, Connie
Mack was sent packing.
One major disappoint for me was the hairdo from Minnesota, Rep. Michele Bachmann held onto her seat in the congress by a sliver.
By the way-- the teachers who made the case "our textbooks are so old, they say Clinton is the current president", won the school bond measure.
DK: You make a great case. The very next day after the election, pundits started talking about the 2016 presidential election.
Are you kidding? Campaigns & all the hoopla are now going to be in the public eye for 4 long years?
Well, sure under the current Citizens United campaign $ free for all (well, for the rich, anyway)...huge profits are being made by TV stations, and so the longer the "mud season" (that of political campaign ads throwing mud @ each other over the airwaves), goes on, the more $$$ they make .
I favor dumping the electoral college as well.
Christopher: There sure were a nice list of particularly sweet wins that happened.
Having Rove's favorites lose iced the cake.
I'm sure he felt he could buy elections-- but his candidates & the GOP party of no are losers-- officially. SWEET!!!
I do wonder if they put something in the water for Bachmann to get reelected???
She outspent her opponent 17 to 1.
I was happy to see marijuana reform & decriminalization starting to take hold, but just saw a bit about how private company drug testing will still screen out those who use MJ, and Boeing & Costco said they will still do the same clean drug test screening, going w federal law instead.
Even a lawyer who went to teh Supreme court to argue a medical marijuana case in an employment situation, lost the case & said citizens have no State's rights in this regard.
Anyway-- President Obama won & let's hope he can pull together the dems to get things done-- not waste time courting the GOP this term.
The Dems have a Senate majority... if they can learn to walk in lockstep, they can get things done.
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