In post-Citizens-United politics in the United States (thanks Justice Roberts!), we might as well just hold square dances or speed dating sessions where politicians and consultants can meet their yacht-slipper wearing, significant other, so we can just dispense with outdated concepts like centralized political parties and "Establishments" once and for all.

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This article cross-posted from Al Jazeera

The balance of political power in the US has been tipped in favour of a new-money elite with a chip on its shoulder.

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Columbus, OH -Another week, another plutocrat steps into the spotlight in the vainglorious pursuit of possessing their very own American politician. This time it was Joe Ricketts (what a perfect name for a billionaire infecting our political system with his financial clout. I can't wait until Jane Hantavirus steps out of the shadows), founder of brokerage house TD Ameritrade and owner of the Chicago Cubs.

Last Tuesday, Ricketts upended a Nebraska Republican Senate Primary with a late infusion of $250,000 the week before for campaign ads on behalf of underdog Deb Fischer (double what she spent herself the entire campaign), chairwoman of the Nebraska state senate. It was essential in helping her win a stunning come-from-behind victory over the much more heavily favored dynamic duo of State Treasurer Don Stenberg and Attorney General Jon Bruning (the latter attacked by one of these ads), who had been beating each other up via their own campaigns and Super Pac supporters for the better part of a year. As recently as a week ago, however, Bruning still looked to have the race locked down, until Ricketts swooped in, Spiderman-style, with the financial resources of OsCorp Industries.

Also recently, The New York Times obtained a secret 54-page, bound campaign plan put together by Republican consultants for "The Ending Spending Action Fund Super PAC", to be bankrolled by Ricketts. In it, they discuss bringing back an old favourite on the Right, President Obama's former pastor Jeremiah Wright, for a massive advertising campaign that he and his consultant friends hope will somehow make Americans look at Jeremiah Wright, and then at Obama, and say, "wait a minute, they're black!"

That, my friends, is the current state of democracy in America. In post-Citizens-United politics in the United States (thanks Justice Roberts!), we might as well just hold square dances or speed dating sessions where politicians and consultants can meet their yacht-slipper wearing, significant other, so we can just dispense with outdated concepts like centralised political parties and "Establishments" once and for all.

Conservatives killed tradition

As Charlie Pierce, the clever political scribe at Esquire Magazine put it, "there are dozens of Joe Ricketts out there, waiting for their main chance. Do you think any of them care what [Republican National Committee Chairman] Reince Priebus thinks of them?" Certainly, short of telling him he'd have to officiate a gay marriage, nobody could get Rick Santorum (and his money man Foster Friess) out of the presidential race long past the time it was clear that he had the same shot at being the nominee as R Kelly.

Ironically, conservatives have killed tradition in our politics, which used to dictate these affairs to a large degree so there was at least a modicum of decorum, in favour of a new-money elite with a chip on its shoulder, a lack of feeling any obligation to country and a penchant for unending hypocrisy. Much like Ricketts hates government spending -- except when it's the government giving him big checks to build a new stadium for his team -- this week former Red Sox pitcher and Tea Party supporter Curt Schilling was shown for the fraud that he is.

Multi-millionaire Schilling, dubbed "America's Newest Welfare Queen" by Sam Smith of Scholars & Rogues, thinks people's only interaction with government should be to run away from it. Except when Schilling runs his online video company the same way he runs his mouth -- with a lot of bravado and little to back it up. Then he suddenly runs straight to the hated government to beg for a bailout provided by Obama's Communist stimulus money.

Perhaps, it's also why Eduardo Severin feels no compunction about leaving the country that provided the infrastructure, technology and university education that allowed him to obtain his billion dollar fortune, to declare residency in Singapore, and save on capital gains taxes. Why, he is a self-made man, you know, if you don't count our legal system's bailing him out when his Facebook friends took his money and ran. Hmm, who funds the courts in this country, anyhow? A bit surprising then, that for this economic treason, he has been hailed as a hero by some conservatives.

Chris Hayes, host of Up w/Chris Hayes on MSNBC and author of Twilight Of The Elites: America After Meritocracy, put it to me this way, "One of the most pernicious pathologies that our current meritocracy produces is a caste of plutocrats with tremendous power who are convinced they are persecuted underdogs. When you perceive yourself as embattled prey, you cut moral corners."

Yup, you could say that. You could also say that these are the guys who for the foreseeable future will play an enormous role in the running of our democracy.

Authors Website: http://www.cliffschecter.com

Authors Bio:
Cliff Schecter is an author, pundit and public relations strategist whose firm Libertas, LLC
handles media relations for political, corporate and non-profit
clients. In 2008, his first book, The Real McCain: Why Conservatives
Don't Trust Him--And Why Independents Shouldn't, was published by
PoliPoint Press and became a political (#2) and non-fiction (#17)
bestseller at Amazon. As founder and President of Libertas, he has
counseled Mayors Against Illegal Guns (MAIG), Chaired by New York City
Mayor Michael Bloomberg, and The Alliance For Climate Protection, run by
former Vice-President Al Gore. Other clients have included IBM, The
American Association for Justice (previously The American Trial Lawyers
Association), Global Strategy Group, Andrews McMeel Publishing, LLC, and
the Earth Day Network.



Schecter was an analyst at polling firm Penn & Schoen in 1996,
helping re-elect President Bill Clinton. As a political and media
strategist overall, he has helped advise the Democratic National
Committee and Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, as well as
the campaigns of former Virginia Governor and current U.S. Senator Mark
Warner, former New York Attorney General and Governor Elliot Spitzer,
former Connecticut Democratic Senate nominee Ned Lamont and former Ohio
Congressional candidate Paul Hackett, among others. Schecter's been a
lecturer for the U.S. State Department--delivering briefings on U.S.
politics to diplomats, journalists and academics in countries such as
South Africa, Australia, Romania and Malta.



Schecter is a weekly columnist for Al Jazeera English, reaching almost
400,000 readers, 80% of which reside in North America. He is a
contributor to The Guardian Online and Huffington Post. Previously,
Schecter had columns syndicated nationally by United Press International
and Knight Ridder Inc. His writing has been featured in the San
Francisco Chronicle, Philadelphia Daily News, Miami Herald, USA Today,
American Prospect, Salon.com and Washington Monthly Magazine. His ideas
have been quoted in the New York Times, Los Angeles Times and Baltimore
Sun, and he's been profiled in U.S News & World Report, Wired.com
and the Huffington Post.



Over the past decade, Schecter has been a regular guest on PBS, MSNBC,
CNN FoxNews, BBC and NPR. He was an on-air political analyst for the
Sinclair Broadcast Network in 2004, syndicated on 60 local
broadcast-news affiliates to 38 media markets around the country. He
served in a similar capacity for Al Jazeera in 2008, with his analysis
reaching countries spanning the globe. Currently he is a regular
panelist on Your Voice, a Sunday morning public affairs show broadcast
on Fox and ABC in the Columbus, Ohio area.



Schecter is a graduate of the Columbia School of International and
Public Affairs (MA), where he concentrated in International Journalism
and Public Relations, the University of Pennsylvania (BA), where he
studied American History and Legal Studies, and the Institut de
Francais, where he received a French Immersion Certificate. He is ABD
(all but dissertation) in his studies for his Ph.D. in American History
from American University in Washington, D.C.

He has a wife, a young son and two cats. He likes all of them a lot.