[ Edit: I also posted this video on Daily Kos – please recommend! ]
One reason Mac D’Alessandro may be, as Red Mass Group’s EaBo says, “the most dangerous man running for Congress this year,” is his ability to clearly communicate and his willingness to make the common sense case for issues many other members of Congress back away from, waiting for others to lead. Mac leads.
At the house party this summer where I got video of him answering questions, he fielded a couple of questions about Citizens United and the corrupting influence of money on politics. His common sense illustration of why allowing unlimited corporate spending on politics is so dangerous, is one of the best I’ve heard:
What Citizens United did was say that corporations and labor unions could spend unlimited sums of money to influence the outcome of elections. And before everyone thinks that that’s just presidential elections, I want you to think about this in these terms:
Say your local school board is under pressure from a private company like Sodexho, to privatize cafeteria services. School board says no, we don’t wanna do that, we think we’re more cost-effective here with the publicly provided services.
Well, Sodexho can go out and spend an unlimited sum of money – millions of dollars – to take out your entire elected school board, and replace them with folks that they want, that are gonna give them the contract, for possibly millions of dollars more.
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We’re already starting to see the impacts of this. Chamber of Commerce pledged to spend $50 million… [ more ]
Many progressive positions supported by a solid, in some cases overwhelming, majority of the public. But we don’t make much progress on them when the right wing attacks, Democrats stand cautiously aside, and the press lazily repeats right wing messaging. Electing Mac is part of the solution.
P.S. Election day is tomorrow and Mac can use your help! Please join me to get out the vote for Mac by signing up here, or calling 617-273-1443.
