My hat is off to Clara Jeffrey and Monika Bauerlein, who are some of the only journalists who are really on top of the changes that are happening in the American political world in regard to what they call Dark Money. Dark Money is the mountain of unregulated, undisclosed money flowing into the electoral process right now. There is no federal oversight on where the money is coming from, who is behind it, and it is not being measured or accounted for in an open and honest way. The coming elections will be bought, not fought, for the first time in the modern era.
All of this is connected to the U.S. Supreme Court’s Citizen’s United decision, which most people do not understand or even know about. Citizen’s United wiped out clean election laws that were on the books to safeguard fair elections. It destroyed accountability and regulation and allowed corporations and the uber-rich to bring unprecedented money to bear on elections w/out any sort of check or balance, even on the veracity of content of ads. This is not a republican thing, this is not a democrat thing – this is a question of how we are going to organize as a people, and how to make sure that elections are fair and honest.
They no longer are.
Bill Moyer recently did a fascinating show on the topic of Dark Money with several different contributors chiming in. It is an illuminating look at the new political landscape, and how it actually works out in specific cases. It is pretty incredible to hear. These folks are telling a story that almost nobody is listening to. I implore you to spend some time watching this.
This is a short segment with Jeffrey and Bauerlein in which they talk about Citizen’s United and its impact on elections.
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