Author: Billy Livsey is an activist/musician. He was in a legendary queer punk band called USED CONDOMS! He is a charter member of ACT UP and an Occupier with a list of open cases.
Big Money is pouring into politics. Hundreds of millions of dollars are making a virtual auction out of this election season.
Washington is for sale. The highest bidder is buying, and our elected representatives are behind the counter only too willing to help them.. The voters are allowing it!
Does anyone believe that “FreedomWorks,” the organization funded by former Speaker of the House Dick Armey, is really interested in the people of America? Does anyone believe that “Americans for Prosperity,” the organization founded by the billionaire Koch brothers (David and Charles) cares about average Americans?
Not on your life. Their sole objective is to elect members of Congress who will look out for them. And thanks to the Supreme Court’s decision in Citizens United v. FEC, these, and other organizations like them, don’t even have to disclose where their money is coming from.
I have to give Big Money credit. They have done a great job obscuring their agenda — and pulling the wool over the eyes of the voters. They’re like magicians engaging in sleight of hand. They keep the audience’s attention focused on one hand while the other hand is really where the action is.
Big Money appeals to the masses by advocating for “lower taxes, less government, and more freedom.“ These are things that “the rest of us” can relate to – even when we don’t know what such slogans mean to us individually, or what the consequences of actions would be. Voters think they will benefit from such actions, but what Big Money really means in lower taxes for corporations, less government regulation of business and more freedom to defraud the average American.
So why should queers look up from Grinder long enough to care?? Well why do you think? Housing— Health Care— the Environment! Queer voices— like everyone else, can not be heard above the cha ching of Big Money pouring into elections at every level from local to Presidential! No matter what issues drive you— you are not being heard in this political climate! The saddest thing is that the people who buy into the message of the Big Money propaganda machine don’t even know that they are being manipulated by forces far more threatening to our well-being than the government.
The most visible manifestation of the Big Money propaganda machine is the Tea Party. Although most of its “members” like to say the Tea Party is a grass-roots movement, the movement was begun by Dick Armey’s “FreedomWorks,” and continues to get much of its support from the Koch brothers’ “Americans for Prosperity.”
Big Money spends hundreds of millions of dollars every year making sure that they get legislation that benefits them – not the people they got fired up during the election.
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All those social issues they made so important during the election – forgotten, they don’t affect profits.
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All those promises to reduce our taxes. Forget it. The lobbyists look out for the rich.
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All those regulations we talked about – irrelevant, unless they affect our profits. Jobs creation – forget it. Big Money gets what it wants, and the rest of us are on our own.
Voters who think they are reducing the power of government are, in reality, turning control of the economy, and the nation, over to the unelected elite who have no interest in the concerns of those same voters.
Wake up America. It’s time we realized what is happening – and put a stop to it.
