Citizen’s United comes to Michigan for Christmas. Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays, your government is now officially for sale. With the Senate passing SB0638, the State of Michigan is ready to officially adopt the wonderful reach of any money from any source finding its way into the economy of elections.
Economy of elections you ask? Yes. One of the largest inroads to wealth now-a-days is running for office – local, state, or federal. Billions of dollars follow the election markets spreading the cash among the candidates (speaker fees, books, appearances, allowances, then salaries and benefits if elected, etc.), campaign professionals, media professionals, the staffs of all, the special interest groups, the lobbyists, and actually anyone connected to the business of elections. And yes, yours truly. I do benefit by writing about the subject, but at least I’m working to end the catastrophe that is Citizen’s United and hope to write my way out of that fable. Besides, the books get whacked by the media and others involved because of the message – and truth!
As a shameless plug to my trilogy of Super PAC novels, let me be the first to say, I told you so. Especially in Super PAC Dark Money Fracking where the Michigan Governor and legislature are found to be practicing the practice of Citizen’s United. What’s even more curious about the timing of the bill is that Governor Snyder recently announced his own super PAC to makes sure he could fund candidates to carry on his work at the end of his term limits – which of course he reached even after promising he’d only run for one term. In addition to the adoption of the federal election rules, Michigan added a little side bar – no reporting. How nice. Not that anyone actually reports the truth; there is no law governing the reporting of dark money. That would be from the other source of election funding which is under IRS law and they’re called 501(c)4’s. Under Citizen’s United, they could collect a billion dollars and plug into one campaign and NO ONE will ever know where any of the money came from. That’s what makes the language of the Michigan bill so absurd: the legislators are throwing it into the face of the Michigan voter and essentially saying, “We don’t care about what you may want. It’s what someone can afford to pay us.” The average Joe has lost the true democracy. Unless he buys enormous amounts of stock in a company that uses Citizen’s United to twist an election in favor of a corporation’s interest. See how nebulous this is?
The scariest scenario? The money is filtered in from foreign countries, foreign billionaires, and anyone of influence beyond our borders, so while several current candidates throw the fear of god into the citizenry over terrorism, ISIL, Visas, and other fear mongering, they routinely take money and offer influence to those who have no regard for our way of life as long as they fund the election. The ultimate form of terrorism. Water boarding the public into believing fear while behind your back funding the fear. Sure, you can try to look up the funding on various websites, but you won’t find the dark money. You won’t find the truth.
So Michigan are you ready? As you prepare your vote and make your statement in 2016 do you know what you have to do? You have to keep voting. In essence you can’t sit back and shrug your shoulders. You MUST visit, talk, and bother your legislators, local officials, and Congressmen constantly. That is the only way to make a dent in the largess of cash someone else has greased the skids with. And even then, you’ll only get lip service unless you bring the community to arms with you.
So Merry Christmas Michigan. As the Ghost of Christmas Present leaves and the Ghost of Christmas Future takes over, take note of the bags of cash at the doorsteps of each Michigan candidate. They’ve guaranteed their Christmas.