Citizens United Cash Hits New Mexico

MeanMesa hasn't been reluctant to pipe up concerning the democracy crushing impact of all the cheap cash the Citizens United ruling has unleashed on the democratic process.  All across the country, previously sleepy little Chamber of Commerce groups have been overwhelmed -- violently prostituted -- by the Washington professionals such as Karl Rove and a few other losers of similar ilk.

The result of this "money bomb takeover" has been a sickening hybrid between the traditional "cash cow" and "media whore," a new product from the rapacious plutocrats who are willing to sacrifice the entire country for even the slightest political advantage.  The reactionary forces within the Supreme Court knew exactly what they were doing when they issued forth the Citizens United decision.  Their masters had long held the "drunken wet dream" of being legally able to influence elections with unlimited and unreported "campaign assistance contributions."

It is almost a certainty that the corporatists and billionaires paid something for the Citizen United ruling, but we will never know what or how much.  MeanMesa can't even so much as speculate what might entice the  ossified throw backs of the Roberts court to act with so much arrogance and hubris.

The outrage of such an anti-democratic and un-Constitutional insult to the American "rule of law" by amounts to little more than a dark cloud of treason. The act was made even more horrendous by its execution in the broad light of day by gleeful "justices" brazen enough to impetuously scold at our President during his State of the Union speech.

Now the fall out from the scheme is everywhere.  The benefactors are exclusively Republicans save the lingering horde of hill billies and other bigots emerging under the deeply soiled, tragic banner of the "tea bagger" zombies who have joined the insurrection.  Desperation runs deep in the GOP these days.  The party is a rolling train wreck stranded politically with only the sparse comic relief of the whackos and freaks who masquerade as candidates in the next election.

The coal for this GOP train wreck's out of control locomotive is the tragically fleeting hope that amnesia has set in, somehow obscuring the disaster of the  recent Republican record.

Before the letter from New Mexico Congressman, Martin Heinrich, MeanMesa will undertake just one more bit of clarification.

There are two forms of money which can be spent by a candidate in an election.  The first form is the more straightforward of the two.  It is candidate money.

Candidate money has been contributed to a candidate's campaign.  It is used to purchase media coverage which says, in some fashion, "vote for this candidate."  This type of money must be reported to the Federal Election Commission along with its source -- that is, along with the name of the party which has contributed it.

When a candidate advertises in this fashion, whether the ad is positive about him or negative about his opponent, he must claim responsibility for its message.  This is the reason we hear the "I am so and so, and I authorized this message" at the very end of the message.  That little quip is required by law.

Campaign assistance money is the second of the two forms.  Unlike the first category of campaign spending, this type of money cannot directly campaign for the election of a specific candidate.  Theoretically, it is money which has never even "passed through" a campaign's coffers, but, instead, has arisen from other sources seeking to "educate" the voters about some contemporary issue.

Originally, this assistance money was intended for advertising about such questions as special projects, changes in laws or the like.  Examples would be bond issues, changes in marijuana laws or local projects which would ultimately require legislative approval.  For a long time, campaign assistance dollars served to educate and persuade voters about just such questions.

In those "good old days" before the Citizens United ruling, commercials paid for with campaign assistance money always had to say who had signed the check.  However, the dismal slide into raw, inflammatory hog wash began -- rather boldly -- with ABC's 2 hour "movie" explaining exactly how Bill Clinton "caused" 9/11.

From there the "campaign assistance" path careened into a cheezy, dimestore Vaudeville with no holds barred.  Citizens United amounted to the judicial, electoral equivalent of a meth dealer showing up at a drunken bon fire party with a gallon of gasoline.

                                        MeanMesa

Representative Heinrich's letter to MeanMesa

 

 

 

 

 

So, with roughly two weeks remaining before the election, New Mexico voters will be "treated" to literally hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of "name recognition" media, all paid for by very suspiciously unnamed and unknown "donors."  The planks on reactionary "campaign platforms" presented in this media glacier will amount to the sickeningly familiar talking points, all remarkably sterile and generic and utterly devoid of specifics.

Also messages with a surgically sterile absence of identified sponsors.

MeanMesa intends to incorporate this message in our next pass out, canvassing card.  The suggestion is simple.

"Stock up on a good collection of your favorite movies.  Load up a health bunch of your favorite music.  Cast a Democratic ballot in early voting (starting October 16 in New Mexico).  Then turn off your radio and television and leave it turned off until November 3 to avoid the endless GOP blither which will, otherwise, arrive in endless 15 minute commercial blocks between every gasp of what you might be listening to or viewing."