{"id":31342,"date":"2012-11-12T06:04:29","date_gmt":"2012-11-12T13:04:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/11\/12\/what-citizens-united-did-and-didnt-do-this-past-election.html"},"modified":"2012-11-12T06:04:29","modified_gmt":"2012-11-12T13:04:29","slug":"what-citizens-united-did-and-didnt-do-this-past-election","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/11\/12\/what-citizens-united-did-and-didnt-do-this-past-election.html","title":{"rendered":"What "Citizens United" did and didn't do this past election"},"content":{"rendered":"

What "Citizens United" did and didn't do this past election<\/b><\/p>\n

On the bright side, it didn't simply allow groups to "buy" the election by completely flooding the market with commercials. \u00a0That doesn't mean that campaign money is useless, just that it is not sufficient, certainly not in a presidential campaign when the news media itself is providing publicity.<\/p>\n

'There is something supremely cynical about the notion among Republican conservatives that they could use their ability to make unlimited contributions to \u201csuper PACs\u201d and shadowy social-welfare groups to buy an election. It views voters as a flock of sheep, easily hypnotized by misleading ads, willing to believe whatever wealthy industrialists tell them about taxes, jobs and health care.'<\/i><\/p>\n

I will disagree with the NYT here to the extent that this wasn't just a notion \u00a0amongst Republicans, but among Democrats (in concern) as well.<\/p>\n

That said, arguing that massive amounts of money spent by shadowy "social welfare" groups and Super PACs doesn't have an effect would be silly. \u00a0The effect may be felt down the line, as those contributors (to GOP and Dems alike) ask for some return on their investment. Or when money is used for mid-term elections, or on issue communication during \u00a0major legislative issues.<\/p>\n

I don't have an easy or straightforward or even coherent answer at this point, aside from disclosure and transparency — but I still feel that unlimited contributions by individuals or groups to political campaigns is not a good thing, even if in this case it didn't buy an election.<\/p>\n

\n

Embedded Link<\/strong><\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tA Landslide Loss for Big Money<\/a>
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tVoters ignored most of the outside ads, but the danger of unlimited campaign spending remains.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Google+:<\/strong> View post on Google+<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What "Citizens United" did and didn't do this past election On the bright side, it didn't simply allow groups to "buy" the election by completely flooding the market with commercials. \u00a0That doesn't mean that campaign money is useless, just that it is not sufficient, certainly not in a presidential campaign when the news media itself … Continue reading “What "Citizens United" did and didn't do this past election”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[106],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31342","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-plusposts"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":128292,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/10\/11\/best-pre-primary-season-money-can-buy.html","url_meta":{"origin":31342,"position":0},"title":"Best pre-primary season money can buy","author":"***Dave","date":"Sun 11-Oct-15 5:43pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Remember, candidates are already debating -- and dropping out -- long before the first primary or caucus vote by any US citizens. By the time any voting to even select a party candidate takes place, much of the campaign for a nomination will already be over.That said, knowing that nearly\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/indian-creek-12545B15D.jpgimgmax%3D660.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/indian-creek-12545B15D.jpgimgmax%3D660.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/indian-creek-12545B15D.jpgimgmax%3D660.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":28881,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/08\/13\/all-the-election-advertising-if-not-election-itself-money-can-buy.html","url_meta":{"origin":31342,"position":1},"title":"All the election advertising (if not election itself) money can buy","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 13-Aug-12 1:34pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Sure, campaign spending can't guarantee victory, but some pretty clever people seem to think it's a good investment.Reshared post from +Jim Feig Embedded Link Two Dark Money Groups Outspending All Super PACs Combined Karl Rove's Crossroads GPS and Americans for Prosperity, a group backed by the Koch brothers, have put\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":27428,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/04\/17\/one-sided-mercenary-discourse.html","url_meta":{"origin":31342,"position":2},"title":""One-sided, mercenary discourse"","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 17-Apr-12 11:28am","format":false,"excerpt":"On Citizens United and where the real problem is: not in corporate personhood or money-as-speech, but in large part with the idea that freedom of speech is not about ensuring that all citizens have voices that can be heard.\"The struggle will likely be long and difficult. But it is worth\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":28485,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/07\/09\/elite-support.html","url_meta":{"origin":31342,"position":3},"title":"Elite support","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 9-Jul-12 2:46pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Sitting here at SEATAC, watching CNN play horse race with the presidential campaign -- today's lengths being noting how the Romney campaign has out-raised the Obama campaign the past couple of months. Which discussion gets some into how that tactically affects the race, but is played as much for its\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":26526,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/02\/19\/montana-gets-to-have-corporate-bought-elections-huzzah.html","url_meta":{"origin":31342,"position":4},"title":"Montana gets to have corporate-bought elections, huzzah","author":"***Dave","date":"Sun 19-Feb-12 9:06pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Montana's Supreme Court ruled in a recent case that Citizens United did not apply to that state because the campaign contribution laws there were based on a long history of monied interests interfering in and corrupting state electoral politics.Not all that surprisingly, SCOTUS has issued a stay of that decision,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"http:\/\/images0-focus-opensocial.googleusercontent.com\/gadgets\/proxy?container=focus&gadget=a&resize_h=100&url=http%3A%2F%2Fthinkprogress.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2011%2F10%2Fscotusjustices-300x168.jpg","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":28304,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/06\/15\/mitch-mcconnell-is-a-dolt-expensive-free-speech-edition.html","url_meta":{"origin":31342,"position":5},"title":"Mitch McConnell Is a Dolt (Expensive Free Speech Edition)","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 15-Jun-12 11:32pm","format":false,"excerpt":"So let's be clear -- this particular article came up in Newsmax, which is one of the zanier right-wing \"news\" sites out there. \u00a0It's sort of like WorldNetDaily, only less pervasively religious. So here's the headline: \u00a0McConnell to Newsmax: Obama Poses Greatest Threat to Free Speech in \u2018Modern Times\u2019 Wow!\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Big Business"","block_context":{"text":"Big Business","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/big-business"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/corporate-speech.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31342","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31342"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31342\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31342"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31342"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31342"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}