Jon Stewart in a five minute skit slammed five members of the Supreme Court. These five members voted to allow millionaire Shaun McCutcheon virtually unlimited political donations to national politicians of every state. In frustration with a dangerously ideologically corrupt Supreme Court, I wrote the following immediately after the decision.
Politicians currently spend an inordinate amount of time raising money for their next election. It means that the moneyed interests have the ear of the politician, not its constituents. If one has any doubt about what this means one simply needs to look at today’s reality.
- 28 percent of all disclosed donations, $1.68 billion, was given by 31,385 people, 1% of the 1%.
- The median donation of the 1% of the 1% was 26,584. That is about half the median yearly income of Americans.
- Polarization? Four out of five of the 1-percent-of-the-1-percent donors gave all of their money to one party or the other.
Is there any doubt why today’s politics have become so caustic and polarized? It is a battle between the plutocrats. The McCutcheon case makes it worse. The average American citizens are simply spectators seemingly without power.
Jon Stewart finds it incredulous that Justice Alito does not see corruption unless one can show a direct service provided by a politician for a monetary reward. Stewart did not have to look too far to find the corrupting influence of money in politics to refute Alito. He simply reminded everyone that Republicans presidential hopefuls flocked to Las Vegas last week to pander to gambling billionaire magnate Sheldon Adelson. Even Chris Christie’s braggadocio was tamed by the pander. He apologized to Adelson for telling the truth. He had called the West Bank occupied territory.
Jon Stewart: ‘In whose delusional mind?’
“In whose delusional mind,” Jon Stewart asks. “Is democracy made better by letting wealthier people control more of it?” He did not have to search too far.
“I can see why the political left doesn’t like decisions like Citizens United and McCutcheon,” Senator McConnell said. “because they expand the playing field. They enable more citizens to be involved, more citizens to contribute to the candidate and causes that they believe in. That’s good for America.”
That statement shows the disregard the senator has for the intelligence of the average American. Jon Stewart placed McConnell’s statement into context. In the 2011-2012 election cycle, only 646 out of millions of donors bumped up to the contribution limits. What McCutcheon does is allow those 646 millionaires and billionaires to extend their reach.
Jon Stewart shows the hypocrisy of the Supreme Court’s conservatives with their voting rights decision. They did not think states restricting voting were anti-democratic. Yet they believed restricting millionaires and billionaires from buying elections was.
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