Barack Obama sells democracy out to corporate interests [Reader Post]

When I grew up, my parents imbued me with a sense of right and wrong. When something was wrong, it was wrong. It didn’t become right because someone else did it. They’d say “If someone else jumps off a bridge would you jump?”

I would not, but Barack Obama would.

My parents said that two wrongs do not make a right. In Obamaworld they do.

Barack Obama said

A vote to oppose these reforms is nothing less than a vote to allow corporate and special interest takeovers of our elections. It is damaging to our democracy. It is precisely what led a Republican President named Theodore Roosevelt to tackle this issue a century ago.

They can buy millions of dollars worth of TV ads –- and worst of all, they don’t even have to reveal who’s actually paying for the ads. Instead, a group can hide behind a name like “Citizens for a Better Future,” even if a more accurate name would be “Companies for Weaker Oversight.” These shadow groups are already forming and building war chests of tens of millions of dollars to influence the fall elections.

Now, imagine the power this will give special interests over politicians. Corporate lobbyists will be able to tell members of Congress if they don’t vote the right way, they will face an onslaught of negative ads in their next campaign. And all too often, no one will actually know who’s really behind those ads.

He said that the ads would be run by “shadowy groups with harmless sounding names.”

He said “The worst thing of all they don’t have to reveal who is having to pay for them.”

He said it would keep “the American public in the dark.”

He said it amounted to a “corporate takeover of our democracy.”

He said “Millions of Americans are struggling to get by and their voices shouldn’t be drowned out by millions of dollars in secret special interest advertising. Their voices should be heard.”

He said he couldn’t “think of anything more devastating to the public interest.”

He said “It gives the special interest lobbyists new leverage to spend millions on advertising to persuade elected officials to vote their way — or to punish those who don’t.”

He bashed the Supreme Court about it.

And there was no going back:

While stumping in Iowa in 2007, Obama criticized his opponent John Edwards for changing his mind on 527 political action groups by allowing a former campaign manager to run a 527 on his behalf.

“You can’t say yesterday that you don’t believe in them and then today, have three-quarters of a million dollars being spent for you,” Obama said incredulously.

Obama warned us about the character of people who would do this:

“The easiest thing in the world to do is to talk about change during election time. Everybody talks about change during election time, you’ve got to look at how they act when its not convenient, when its hard.”

Oops

“Well, because we can’t operate in a situation where we have only the resources we can raise in our campaign by very limited campaign finance rules,” said Wasserman Schultz, “and the Republicans will have several hundred million dollars in Super PAC money that will be dumped on President Obama in the general election. So, the rules as they exist now are the rules we will play by, but when it comes to the future and if the Republicans would step up right now, pass a disclose act, apply those new transparency rules and get rid of Super PACs to the election right now — which we would love to see — we welcome them and urge them to do that.”

She added that Obama wouldn’t become beholden to special interest groups now that he’s agreed to play the Super PAC game. “We have been the example in how to reduce special interests,” she said

Um, sure

80% of ‘Green Energy’ Loans Went to Top Obama Donors

Nancy Pelosi Alinskyizes the Koch brothers:

“The President made a decision, which I think was a wise one that he was not going to unilaterally disarm and leave the field to the Koch Brothers to decide who would be President of the United States and to control the congress. And his commitment was full disclosure…”

“Full disclosure.” Heh.

Obama Accepting Untraceable Credit Card Donations

Including a donation from Adolf Hitler

Now let’s look at why Obama abandoned his ethics.

Democrats had complained that Obama’s distaste for the Supreme Court decision in the so-called Citizens United case that spawned Super PACs had affected the success of the same groups formed to help him.

Restore our Future, a group supporting Republican presidential frontrunner and former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, raised $30.2 million in 2011 and had cash on hand of $23.6 million at the end of the year, according to filings submitted last month.

By contrast, Priorities USA Action raised $4.2 million by the end of 2011 and had $1.5 million in cash on hand.

Those figures confirmed fears within the Obama orbit that the eventual Republican nominee and his supporters could outspend the president in the general election, despite the Obama campaign’s own fundraising strength.

And we can’t have that, can we?

Not only is Obama selling out to corporate interests, he is targeting the Koch brothers personally. The Koch brothers are on Obama’s enemies list.

How would you feel if aides to the president of the United States singled you out by name for attack, and if you were featured prominently in the president’s re-election campaign as an enemy of the people?

What would you do if the White House engaged in derogatory speculative innuendo about the integrity of your tax returns? Suppose also that the president’s surrogates and allies in the media regularly attacked you, sullied your reputation and questioned your integrity. On top of all of that, what if a leading member of the president’s party in Congress demanded your appearance before a congressional committee this week so that you could be interrogated about the Keystone XL oil pipeline project in which you have repeatedly—and accurately—stated that you have no involvement?

Consider that all this is happening because you have been selected as an attractive political punching bag by the president’s re-election team. This is precisely what has happened to Charles and David Koch, even though they are private citizens, and neither is a candidate for the president’s or anyone else’s office.

What Messrs. Koch do, in fact, is manage businesses that provide employment to more than 50,000 people in North America in legitimate, productive industries. They also give millions of dollars to medical researchers, hospitals and cultural institutions. Their biggest offense, apparently, is that they also contribute generously to nonprofit organizations that promote personal liberty and free enterprise, and some of those organizations oppose policies advocated by the president.
…….
In this country, we regard the use of official power to oppress or intimidate private citizens as a despicable abuse of authority and entirely alien to our system of a government of laws. The architects of our Constitution meticulously erected a system of separated powers, and checks and balances, precisely in order to inhibit the exercise of tyrannical power by governmental officials.

Our Constitution even explicitly prohibits bills of attainder so that Congress may not single out individual citizens or groups for disfavored treatment or unequal application of the force of government. Prosecutorial power is rigidly constrained and judicially supervised so that government may not accuse private citizens of crimes or investigate them without good cause.

Unless, of course, you’re Barack Milhous Obama.

As for the Koch brothers- well, they aren’t going to take being demonized any longer:

“It is worth noting that President Obama outraised and outspent his opponent by hundreds of millions of dollars in the 2008 Presidential campaign, relying in large part on the same corporate executive funding sources whose productivity, business practices, and profitability he pretends to denounce,” Ellender said. “Apparently, the President and his allies do not want to lose that perceived fundraising advantage during the 2012 Presidential campaign, and are trying to intimidate into silence those who may disagree with them and who may decide to support other candidates.”

Obama’s reversal is a sign of desperation. The abyss is staring back at him. He could very well be outspent this year. Obama is terrified by the thought of a level playing field. In 2008 Obama raised $750 million for his campaign and outspent John McCain by $250 million. Obama outspent McCain on TV ads by a 3:1 margin. That’s not likely to reoccur.

Not even if Obama Keeps “the American public in the dark.” Not even if Obama’s actions are “more devastating to the public interest” than anything else he can think of.

“Everybody talks about change during election time, you’ve got to look at how they act when its not convenient, when its hard.”

Now you know.

Man, I’m glad I have this:

DrJohn

DrJohn has been a health care professional for more than 30 years. In addition to clinical practice he has done extensive research and has published widely with over 70 original articles and abstracts in the peer-reviewed literature. DrJohn is well known in his field and has lectured on every continent except for Antarctica. He has been married to the same wonderful lady for over 30 years and has three kids- two sons, both of whom are attorneys and one daughter on her way into the field of education.

DrJohn was brought up with the concept that one can do well if one is prepared to work hard but nothing in life is guaranteed.

Except for liberals being foolish.