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WILL DEMOCRACY SURVIVE THE TSUNAMI OF RIGHTWING DARK MONEY COMING
THIS FALL?  
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Thom Hartmann
August 9, 2024
The Hartmann Report
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_ If Democrats survive the onslaught that’s coming and emerge
victorious at the federal level, the first order of business next year
must be to strip the cancer of dark money out of our body politic... _


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_The song that was inspired by this article is available here
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My reading this article as an audio podcast is available here
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Get ready: massive pools of dark rightwing money are soon going to
clobber us. Will Democracy survive this onslaught by the morbidly
rich?

Democrats are giddy right now; the substantial lead that Trump had
held over Biden for months has largely vanished as the match-up has
changed to Harris and Walz. In the ten polls aggregated by
RealClearPolitics since Biden’s withdrawal, Trump has lost 3 points
and only leads by one. In the DailyKos/Civiqs
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Harris leads Trump 49/45, Reuters
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the race at 43/42, and Morning Consult
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it at 47/46.

Trump is blustering in ways that indicate he thinks he’s losing
(yesterday’s presser
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his shabby golf motel was particularly pathetic), while JD Vance’s
poll numbers are in the toilet…or the couch…and showing no
indication of recovery any day soon.

THAT SAID, OTHER LESSONS FROM THIS AND RECENT PAST YEARS SHOULD KEEP
DEMOCRATS FROM EASING UP OR BECOMING OVERCONFIDENT. THE OFFICIAL
BEGINNING OF THE ELECTION SEASON IS STILL ALMOST A MONTH AWAY, AND THE
BIG MONEY PLEDGED BY RIGHTWING AND NEOFASCIST BILLIONAIRES HASN’T
EVEN SHOWN UP YET.

While over a hundred million pissed off women and the widespread
concern that Trump and the GOP are determined to destroy the American
system of government seem like a powerful force, history tells us big
dark money could overcome even those substantial tailwinds.

WE SAW THIS PLAYED OUT HERE IN PORTLAND JUST LAST MONTH. SUSHEELA
JAYPAL (SISTER OF PRAMILA) WAS A WELL-THOUGHT-OF AND SUCCESSFUL OREGON
POLITICIAN, A MULTNOMAH COUNTY COMMISSIONER, THE COUNTY THAT INCLUDES
THE PORTLAND METRO AREA. SHE HAD A LONG LIST OF GREAT ACCOMPLISHMENTS,
WAS WELL LIKED, AND WAS A SHOO-IN TO REPLACE RETIRING DEMOCRATIC
CONGRESSMAN EARL BLUMENAUER.

Until AIPAC (America Israel Public Affairs Committee) came into our
district and dropped millions into the race with a deeply dishonest
smear campaign.

I was getting a large 4-color hit-piece flyer about every three days
in my mailbox; local radio and TV were saturated with the ads that
essentially portrayed her as either evil or incompetent or both. And,
right up until the election, nobody knew that AIPAC was funding the
campaign; they’d set up a front group and carefully timed its
incorporation so it didn’t have to disclose its funder until after
the election was over.

As Jaypal noted
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day after it was announced that she’d lost the election:

“This race showed so clearly why we need to have real campaign
finance reform. Outside super PACs came in and spent an unprecedented
$6 million, even timing their contributions so that they wouldn’t
have to show who was trying to buy this election until well after the
votes were cast.”

AIPAC also reportedly spent more than $14 million
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take down New York’s Jamal Bowman and, just this week, knocked out
Missouri Congresswoman and Squad member Cori Bush with $8 million
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As the pro-Israel PAC notes on their home page
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weeks works: “98% of AIPAC-backed candidates won their general
election races in 2022.”

BUT AIPAC IS A PIKER COMPARED TO WHAT’S GOING TO BE COMING DOWN THE
ROAD AS THE TECH, BANKING, INSURANCE, AND FOSSIL FUEL BILLIONAIRES AND
THEIR COMPANIES WEIGH INTO THE PRESIDENTIAL RACE THIS FALL.

A previous campaign by the fossil fuel industry is instructive,
particularly since that industry sees Kamala Harris and Tim Walz as
enemies; Harris signed off on the largest climate legislation in world
history, and Walz has required the utilities in Minnesota to be 100%
carbon free by 2040, a mere 16 years from now.

In 2018, Washington Governor Jay Inslee got Initiative 1631
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the ballot; it was a modest carbon tax with a rebate attached so
drivers wouldn’t be penalized. It was widely popular when it was
rolled out, and everybody in the region was excited that Washington
State was about to blaze a new climate-friendly path, an example for
every state in the union.

That was, until the fossil fuel industry weighed in, just weeks before
the election, dropping $17 million into what many called a hugely
dishonest (and frightening: they claimed the tax would destroy the
state’s economy) advertising campaign that blanketed the state. The
ballot measure, previously seen as inevitable, was destroyed at the
polls.

This is the brave new world Clarence Thomas’ tie-breaking vote
brought America when the Supreme Court, in their 2010 _Citizens
United _decision, legalized both political bribery and massive
intervention in elections by corporations and billionaires.

PRIOR TO THOMAS’ VOTE ON THAT DECISION, HARLAN CROW — WHO
HELPED FINANCE
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ORIGINAL SWIFT BOAT ATTACKS ON JOHN KERRY IN 2004 — AND OTHER
BILLIONAIRES HAD LAVISHED MILLIONS ON HIM AND HIS FAMILY.

Crow gave the group Thomas’ wife, Ginni, started a half million
dollars; he bought Thomas’ mother’s home and others in the
neighborhood so she could live rent-free for the rest of her life; he
put Thomas’ nephew through an expensive prep school. Another
billionaire bought Thomas a quarter-million-dollar luxury RV.

It was a remarkably successful investment for Crow, his family, and
his billionaire buddies. Just his own family’s political
contributions went from an average of a few hundred thousand dollars a
year during the decade preceding 2010 to multiple millions
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after Thomas’ vote. Americans for Tax Fairness calculated it at an
862% increase just for the Crow family.

Graphic from Americans for Tax Fairness

IN THIS POST-_CITIZENS UNITED_ ERA, TRUTH HAS BECOME A CASUALTY OF
BIG MONEY. FOR EXAMPLE, ACCORDING TO OPENSECRETS.ORG
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THE EMPOWER PARENTS PAC HAS CONTRIBUTED $82.5 MILLION, SUSQUEHANNA
INTERNATIONAL GROUP $69.7 MILLION, CITADEL LLC $59.9 MILLION, AND
ULINE INC $59.6 MILLION TO REPUBLICAN CAUSES _SO FAR_. AND THEY’RE
JUST GETTING STARTED.

Ever since _Citizens United _legalized literally unlimited
contributions to the new category of political action committees it
created (SuperPACs), just in the 15 months from January 2023 to April
of 2024 over $8.6 billion has been raised
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this year’s federal campaigns with over 65% of that money — $5.6
billion — running through PACs. And, as noted, they’re just
getting started.

Governor Inslee was confident his carbon tax was going to pass, just
like Jayapal, Bowman, and Bush expected a comfortable ride to
re-election.

Then big money came in and lowered the boom.

SO, GET READY. IT’S GOING TO GET UGLY. THERE’S NOT A COMPETITIVE
HOUSE OR SENATE RACE ANYWHERE IN AMERICA THAT’S IMMUNE FROM MASSIVE
DARK MONEY THAT’S BEEN THROWN TOGETHER AT THE LAST MINUTE TO REMAIN
UNTRACEABLE.

And the presidential race will be unlike anything ever seen before:
already a South African immigrant billionaire has promulgated
a deepfake video
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Harris calling herself a DEI hire, while JD Vance is trying
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Boat
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Walz.

To compound the problem, Republicans on the Federal Election
Commission just announced
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will prevent that agency from regulating deepfakes in this
presidential election. And in Wisconsin, dark rightwing money is
attempting to reshape
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state’s form of governance to give more power to Republicans in its
legislature.

DID I MENTION THEY’RE JUST GETTING STARTED? WE WON’T EVEN KNOW THE
DIMENSIONS OF THE COMING ONSLAUGHT UNTIL IT’S UPON US IN SEPTEMBER
AND OCTOBER.

As Senator Elizabeth Warren noted
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position held by fully 72%
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American voters, “Our democracy shouldn’t be bought and paid for
by the wealthy and powerful.”

IF DEMOCRATS SURVIVE THE ONSLAUGHT THAT’S COMING AND EMERGE
VICTORIOUS AT THE FEDERAL LEVEL, THE FIRST ORDER OF BUSINESS NEXT YEAR
MUST BE TO STRIP THE CANCER OF DARK MONEY OUT OF OUR BODY POLITIC.

We can’t take anything for granted. We must phone bank, canvas,
write postcards, talk to friends and neighbors, help people register
to vote, and share the good word.

If we fail, the poison Thomas and his Republican colleagues on the
Court have injected into our democracy may well prove fatal to our
system of government, signaling an end to the American Experiment and
the beginning of a full-blown oligarchy
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THE HARTMANN REPORT, a Daily Newsletter of Renaissance Thinking about
Progressive Politics, Economics, Science, and the Political News
Issues of Our Day, is a reader-supported publication. To receive new
posts and support my daily work to reclaim democracy from the morbidly
rich, please consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

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* elections
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* Dark Money
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* the ultra right
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* AIPAC
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* Citizens United
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* democracy
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