The first thing I am going to tell you is that the notion of there being any difference between the Republicans and the Democrats is negligible. Do you actually believe that they feel any real responsibility to the people that elected them? You might not really want to hear this, but they really don't. The people they want to impress, and the people that they want the support of, are the people that fund the largest part of their campaigns. You may believe that the political parties fund their campaigns, but you would be wrong. They do give a little, but not much. The ordinary people don't give much. Let's take Nancy Pelosi (D-CA, Speaker of the House). How much do you believe individuals that donated to her gave? Do you think that they gave more that half? The answer is that individual Donors, rich, poor whatever, gave 33% of her campaign funding. Who gave her the rest? Who gave her the other 66%? That's fully two-thirds of her war chest! PAC'S , that's who! Unions, Doctor's groups, lawyer's groups, oil companies, Agricultural Companies, many that have no interest in California, where her Congressional District is. So...who do you think she is out to please? In the end she knows that individuals eventually vote. We all know that. The question you should ask yourself is who do you get to vote for? You get to vote for the Democrat or Republican of your choice. You can vote for the Greens, or the Worker's Party or some small political party that hasn't got a chance, nobody will stop you, and I wish you would. The truth though, is that the Democrats and the Republicans are the only real game in town! The bad part is that they are all owned by PAC's.
You may say that I am wrong, that the best candidate wins. Sure. The truth is, the candidate with the most money usually wins. The other way they win is by gerrymandering. That's when the party in power rewrites the election district boundaries and divides it up by party membership, so that a congressional district for example has a republican or democratic majority. If someone lives in a "safe" district, than they still get all the money they can get, and they give it too people in their own party that are having a hard time in their campaigns. This way they get people to "owe" them, so they can count on their support when they need it. It's all about money, money and more money. It's very unlikely that you will hear from the best and the brightest unless they have access to lots of money. They can be the smartest, most honest people in the world, but unless they have unlimited funds, you will never hear of them. So for example, what industries gave to Nancy Pelosi?
NANCY PELOSI (D-CA)
Top Industries
The top industries supporting Nancy Pelosi are:
1 Securities & Investment
$93,600
2 Real Estate
$81,300
3 Transportation Unions
$78,000
4 Building Trade Unions
$75,000
5 Lawyers/Law Firms
$74,050
6 Retired
$71,750
7 Public Sector Unions
$64,000
8 Industrial Unions
$58,000
9 Misc Unions
$50,000
10 Insurance
$46,450
11 Health Professionals
$38,700
12 TV/Movies/Music
$33,750
13 Beer, Wine & Liquor
$26,750
14 Commercial Banks
$24,500
15 Computers/Internet
$23,400
16 Telephone Utilities
$22,500
17 Pro-Israel
$22,350
18 Misc Finance
$22,150
19 Lobbyists
$21,600
19 Oil & Gas
$21,600
Taken from The Center for Responsive Politics @ OPENSECRETS.ORG
WOW! Do you believe that? Did I put my money where my mouth was or what? By George, I think we've got it! So this is how it works!
But Tim you say, she was a shoe-in. She didn't even need all that money. Remember what I said about giving to other candidates? Well she was #10 in giving to other Democratic candidates. How Much? How about $608,500.00.
Q. What about that guy that was just named House Majority Leader, Steny Hoyer (D-Md)? Did he give? A. Sure, he was #3 with $835,726.00. How else did you think he got so many friends?
Q. What about Sen. Barrack Obama (D-OH). Is he a big spender?
A. Sure he is. He wants to be President. He was #17 with $380,843.
It ALL revolves around money. Stay tuned. I've got to go now. See who is next on my Politician of the day. We'll dive into their campaign financing.