[ Simply put, the elections are “tightening” because rightwing
billionaires and giant corporations are pouring billions of dollars
into advertising. And advertising works.]
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THIS IS THE ELECTION YOU GET FOR 9 BILLION BUCKS  
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Thom Hartmann
October 25, 2022
The Hartmann Report
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_ Simply put, the elections are “tightening” because rightwing
billionaires and giant corporations are pouring billions of dollars
into advertising. And advertising works. _

, Image by Tumisu from Pixabay

 

The polls are tightening up right now, and the media is treating it
like it’s some mystical force of nature causing people to shift
their concerns from abortion, guns, climate, democracy, and the
survival of Social Security over to gas prices, Black crime, banning
books, and trans kids playing sports.

THE MEDIA, OF COURSE, KNOWS WHAT’S GOING ON. THEY’RE THE SECONDARY
RECIPIENTS OF IT, RIGHT BEHIND THE POLITICIANS, BECAUSE THEY’RE
MAKING BILLIONS CONVEYING THE GOP MESSAGE TO AMERICA. WHICH, OF
COURSE, IS WHY THEY WON’T TELL YOU WHAT THE REAL GAME IS HERE OR HOW
IT’S BEING PLAYED.

In the early 1970s, I was a partner with the late Terry O’Connor in
a small Michigan advertising agency, Ter Graphics, and a copywriter
for another, Barden-Durst, run by the late Bob Strand. Our biggest
clients were Kellogg’s and Michigan National Bank, and I learned the
business from these men and from in-person instruction by the
legendary Joe Sugarman, to whom I’m grateful to this day.

Later in the ’70s, I taught marketing and advertising in cities
around the world for the American Marketing Centers and in 1989
started the Atlanta advertising agency Chandler, MacDonald, Stout,
Schneiderman & Poe, named after my favorite writers and my best
friend, which Louise and I sold in 1997 to retire to the mountains of
Vermont. CMSS&P primarily did business as The Newsletter Factory, and
our clients included more than 100 of the Fortune 500 companies at
that time, as well as government agencies from the US Army to the NSA
and the CIA.

I’ve also been hosting what is today the #1 progressive talk show in
America for 19 years, and worked in radio news for 7 years before
that.

I SAY ALL THIS NOT BY WAY OF BRAGGING BUT HOPEFULLY TO CONVINCE YOU
THAT I KNOW SOMETHING ABOUT MEDIA AND THE ADVERTISING AND MARKETING
BUSINESS. AND IF THERE’S ANYTHING I KNOW DEEP IN MY GUT, FROM
DECADES OF OBSERVATION AND EXPERIENCE, IT’S THAT ADVERTISING WORKS
WHEN IT’S DONE BIG AND DONE REPEATEDLY.

While creativity and “production values” in advertising are
important, they’re both subordinate to frequency when it comes to
producing results. Even a poorly crafted message for a mediocre
product will convince people to act the way you want them to if it’s
repeated frequently enough.

IN A VARIATION ON THE 80S CLICHÉ ABOUT TOYS, WHOEVER ENDS THE
CAMPAIGN HAVING SPENT THE MOST MONEY TYPICALLY WINS.

Multiple studies have been done about money in politics over the past
few decades and the results
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always within a few points of each other: between 80 and 95 percent of
the time the biggest spender in a political race wins, with the
average biggest spender winning around 91 percent of the time.

Which is why new analyses of campaign spending in the 2022 midterm
race should concern every American.

OPENSECRETS HAS FOUND
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MORE THAN $4.4 BILLION HAS BEEN SPENT SO FAR JUST ON ELECTING MEMBERS
OF THE US HOUSE AND SENATE (AND 2/3RDS OF SENATORS ARE NOT EVEN UP FOR
RE-ELECTION), WITH AN EXPECTED $9.3 BILLION TO GO TO RADIO, TV, SOCIAL
MEDIA, AND OTHER FORMS OF ADVERTISING BY ELECTION DAY.

NPR found, based on data from the ad-tracking firm _AdImpact_, that
in just a dozen Senate races over $1.6 billion has been spent “with
$3 out of every $4 being spent in six states — Georgia,
Pennsylvania, Arizona, Wisconsin, Nevada and Ohio…”

“Most of that money,” NPR reports
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“is coming from dark money outside groups with little-to-no donor
transparency — and Republicans are getting a huge boost from
them.”

OF THE NEARLY $1 BILLION IN UNREGULATED “OUTSIDE” MONEY THAT’S
BEEN SPENT SO FAR _JUST TO ELECT REPUBLICANS TO THE SENATE_,
NPR NOTES
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“Eighty-six percent of the money going toward pro-GOP TV ads is
coming from these outside groups, compared to 55% for Democrats. Put
simply: If it weren't for these outside groups, Republican candidates
would be swamped on the airwaves.”

THIS IS NOT HOW A DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC IS SUPPOSED TO WORK, AND IT
WOULD HAVE REPRESENTED A FEDERAL FELONY JUST 12 YEARS AGO.

That was when 5 corrupt Republicans on the US Supreme Court blew open
the doors to billionaires and massive corporations taking ownership of
the GOP and much of the American political process with their
poisonous _Citizens United_ decision.

SIMPLY PUT, THE ELECTIONS ARE “TIGHTENING” BECAUSE RIGHTWING
BILLIONAIRES AND GIANT CORPORATIONS ARE POURING BILLIONS OF DOLLARS
INTO ADVERTISING. AND, AS NOTED EARLIER, ADVERTISING WORKS. TO QUOTE
THE 2014 _WASHINGTON POST_ HEADLINE
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“91% OF THE TIME THE BETTER-FINANCED CANDIDATE WINS. DON’T ACT
SURPRISED.”

On top of their advertising dominance, though, the GOP has a second
tool for repeating their message so frequently that listeners are
hearing it in their dreams: billionaire oligarch Murdoch’s Fox
“News,” two additional rightwing television networks, over 200
television stations regularly carrying rightwing editorials and
right-tilted newscasts, and over 1500 radio stations carrying
rightwing hate radio, almost 300 of them in Spanish.

NOTHING LIKE THIS MASSIVE RIGHTWING/REPUBLICAN MEDIA OPERATION —
CAREFULLY BUILT AT THE COST OF BILLIONS OVER A 4-DECADE PERIOD —
EXISTS ON THE DEMOCRATIC SIDE, AND IT PROVIDES A MASSIVE, 24/7/365
BOOST TO THE GOP THAT’S WORTH TENS OF BILLIONS A YEAR IN “EARNED
MEDIA” (_AKA_ “FREE ADVERTISING/PROMOTION”). IT EVEN MAKES
MONEY FOR ITS OWNERS, RATHER THAN COSTING ANYBODY ANYTHING!

When George W. Bush was president, he used to invite talk radio hosts
to broadcast live from the lawn of the White House every summer; Obama
killed the practice, in part because there are only a handful of
nationally syndicated or even local progressive hosts in the country
and in part because the Democratic Party has never taken seriously the
power of talk radio.

(You can read the whole sorry tale in an article I wrote two years
ago for 
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Nation
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in a 2018 open letter I wrote to billionaire Tom Steyer
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Clear Channel was up for sale.)

If Republicans retake the House, the Senate, or both this November
after the _Dobbs_ decision, their naked attempt to overthrow our
government, their promises to end Social Security, and their playing
footsie with Vladimir Putin on Ukraine, it will be entirely because of
the billions in dark money that supports them.

AND WHO CAN BLAME THE BILLIONAIRES AND CORPORATIONS BEHIND THIS
CORRUPTION? FIRST OFF, IT’S BEEN FULLY LEGALIZED BY THE SUPREME
COURT. SECOND, IT’S A FANTASTIC INVESTMENT, AS THEY SAW IN 2016:
POUR $7 BILLION INTO AN ELECTION AND WITHIN THE FIRST YEAR GET ALMOST
$2 _TRILLION_ IN TAX BREAKS AND ANOTHER TRILLION IN FORGIVABLE LOANS
WITH FEW STRINGS ATTACHED.

Billionaires win, corporations win, corrupt politicians win: the only
losers are democracy and the American people. And, let’s be frank:
the billion-dollar corporations that own our media and our politicians
don’t really give a rat’s ass about either democracy or the
American people as long as we keep buying the products and voting for
the politicians advertised on their networks.

As CBS’s then-CEO, Les Moonves, said back in 2016
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“Man, who would have expected the ride we're all having right now?
It may not be good for America, but it's damn good for CBS. The
money's rolling in and this is fun. I've never seen anything like
this, and this going to be a very good year for us. Sorry. It's a
terrible thing to say. But, bring it on, Donald. Keep going.”

Big money in politics and a democracy that works for the majority of
the people of a nation are incompatible: just ask any Russian. Or
their victims in Ukraine.

Meanwhile, both Republicans and the media will point out that,
“Democrats are getting dark money, too!” as if that means
everything is equal. But what the rightwing billionaires know is:

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If they flood the zone with too much money it’ll get noticed, so
they’re careful to just match — and then only slightly surpass —
the money Democrats can raise.

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This prevents widespread political outrage and lets Republicans win
“close elections” as if everything was still “normal” and our
democracy was working as it should. (Thus, the “closing gap”
stories we’re reading right now.)

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But they know in a pinch they can always just dump another few million
or billion dollars when a race is essential to their interests. Plus,
having a few Democrats like Manchin and Sinema in their pockets is
their ultimate ace-in-the-hole.

REPUBLICANS ON THE SUPREME COURT HAVE, WITH THEIR BIZARRE “MONEY IS
FREE SPEECH” DECISIONS, PUT AMERICA ON THE FAST TRACK TO OLIGARCHY,
AUTHORITARIANISM, AND ULTIMATELY TYRANNY.

There are multiple ways to overcome or overturn _Citizens
United_ and the other corrupt SCOTUS decisions that have handed our
nation’s elections over to their billionaire patrons: I wrote an
entire book about it (_The Hidden History of the Supreme Court and the
Betrayal of America
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IF PEOPLE POWER BEATS BIG MONEY IN THIS ELECTION, DEMOCRATS MUST FOCUS
AS MUCH OF THEIR AND THEIR DONOR’S EFFORTS AS POSSIBLE ON
OVERTURNING THESE DEMOCRACY-DESTROYING DECISIONS WHILE STARTING THE
LONG PROJECT OF BUILDING OUT A MEDIA INFRASTRUCTURE SO THE REST OF
AMERICA CAN HEAR THEIR MESSAGE EVERY DAY, YEAR-ROUND.

Otherwise, the rightwing billionaires will simply toss $20 or $30
billion — or whatever it takes — into the 2024 election and
President Trump or President DeSantis will make sure it’s the last
honest political race in American history.

We’ve watched this movie play out in Russia (and a few other
countries) over the past four decades: let’s not allow it to happen
here, too.

_Thom Hartmann is a NY Times bestselling author of 34 books in 17
languages & nation's #1 progressive radio host. Psychotherapist,
international relief worker. Politics, history, spirituality,
psychology, science, anthropology, pre-history, culture, and the
natural world._

* 2022 Elections
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* Money in Politics
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* Citizens United
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* Billionaires
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* Corporations
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