"Robertson: Gay Marriage Advocates, Following In Steps of Illuminati, Out to Destroy God and Family"
"James Dobson Floats Claim That Pastors May Soon Be Imprisoned"
From mediamatters.org
"Laura Ingraham Uses Boston Bombing To Stoke Fears About Immigration Reform"
"Breitbart's Shapiro: Obama Arguing For Tax Fairness Is Like O.J. Simpson Being "The Lead Advocate Against Murder"
"Fox's Dobbs: Obama "Would Be Elated If Every American Were Dependent Upon His Administration"
"Westboro Baptist Church To Picket Funerals In Wake Of Boston Marathon Bombing"
"GOP Rep. Barton Cites Biblical "Great Flood' As Evidence That Climate Change Isn't Necessarily Man-Made"
I'm afraid the abnormal looks normal to enough people that even these headlines don't alarm them. They re-elect the politicians who make them, follow the religious leaders to invoke them, and support the sponsors of the pundits who spew them. But why?
Lawrence Lessig, in his new book, Lesterland: The Corruption of Congress and How to End It, gives us this scenario to contemplate: "Speaking of Congress, in the 2012 election 0.000032 percent -- or 99 Americans -- gave 60 percent of the individual SuperPAC money."
"The U.S. has two types of elections: One, the traditional voting election, where citizens cast ballots. The other, a distinctively modern "money election, " in which the relevant "funders" give enough money to afford candidates the chance to run effectively."
Approximately 150,000 or 0.05 percent of the 311 million Americans, those "funders" who fund the "money election," determine who we get to vote for before we ever reach the ballot box.
Now let's put this picture puzzle together. Americans know government is not working. We go the polls after being promised all manner of improvements. We elect and re-elect representatives who don't represent us. Nothing really changes. We are all a little crazy as a result, which makes the kind of nutty headlines I've listed above seem almost normal.
If there still exists a shadow of doubt in your mind that special interest money runs our country, you're not paying attention or you've adjusted to the abnormal. If you've adjusted, welcome to Alice's Wonderland, where freaky characters seem normal and are celebrated for making the headlines above.
Robert De Filippis
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