Arizona Senator John McCain appearing on this morning’s “Meet the Press” told commentator David Gregory that the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision was one of the worst decisions that the high court has ever rendered labeling it naive and ill conceived. McCain pointed out, as an example, how one individual, in this case Newt Gingrich’s benefactor Sheldon Adelson has totally distorted the primary process by propping up a candidate that has little real appeal and no chance of winning the nomination. This in turn has contributed to a tainting the entire process of the Republican primaries and hurting the G.O.P.’s brand among the critically important independent voter.
In the analysis of the show’s moderator David Gregory Mitt Romney is a weak candidate that can’t put away a field of weak contenders and seal the deal on the nomination. He sees this as a direct result of the influence of the amounts of money pouring into the campaign by a handful of super rich donors who are distorting the wishes of ordinary Americans. Political columnist Bob Woodward stated that we have not seen this degree of political distortion in our politics since the age of the Robber Barons.
The great irony of all of this is that those on the far right may be faced with voting for Mitt Romney, hardly a bona fide conservative even though he’s parroting their talking points, because the super rich donors have long since swamped the true conservative candidates who really represented the beliefs of the ultra conservative wing of the G.O.P. What’s even more ironic is that it’s conservatives who usually complain about activist judges rendering decisions that distort the will of the people and now they themselves may be victims of that same judicial activism as a result of Citizens United.
Is this anyone’s idea of popular democracy?
S.J. Gulitti
3/18/12
He doesn’t poll badly against Obama.
Our own candidate is still an incumbent limping into an election year and will need all our help, so will Warren. Both are still underdogs in my view though there is certainly more light at the end of the tunnel.
Warren still has to deal with all the Scott Brown Democrats and the Republicans/Independents who are all about the Cosmo boy. My mother seems to be very cynical about politics nowadays but she voted for Bill Clinton back in the 1990s and voted for Hillary in the 2008 primary’s. She tends to be more conservative on issues such as illegal immigration and welfare then myself, while I lean liberal on those issues. My dad is gun owning hunter, even though the Democratic party hasn’t done anything about gun control quite while now, my dad seems to be liking Mitt Romney only because of “his business experience” and the fact he doesn’t care about the poor. My sister isn’t big or active in politics, voted for Hillary in the primaries and Obama in the general election in her first election she can vote for, seems to be conservative on the same issues as my parents. My parents friends seem to be relevantly conservative from people who live in Massachusetts. I look at my mother Facebook profile one time during August of last year and found out this stat, 14 like Sarah Palin, 15 like Mitt Romney, 10 like Rightchange, 18 like Scott Brown, 11 like Being Conservative.
It sucks to be around conservatives and not know many progressive in your family or friends.