Last updated on September 25th, 2023 at 01:38 pm
After the Supreme Court handed down a decision that wiped out all individual campaign donation limits today, a fed up Bernie Sanders took aim at the 5 Koch conservatives in the court’s majority.
In a 5-4 ruling, the conservative majority on the Supreme wiped out all legal limits on individual campaign donations. This decision opens the door for wealthy individuals to give as much money as they want to political campaigns, and it is clear that the nation’s top champion for getting the money out of our politics has had enough.
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In a statement Sen. Sanders said, “Freedom of speech, in my view, does not mean the freedom to buy the United States government…What world are the five conservative Supreme Court justices living in? To equate the ability of billionaires to buy elections with ‘freedom of speech’ is totally absurd. The Supreme Court is paving the way toward an oligarchic form of society in which a handful of billionaires like the Koch brothers and Sheldon Adelson will control our political process.”
Over the past two election cycles Republicans have not been able to buy elections at the federal level, so their answer is to pollute the electoral process with even more money.
There is a reason why Bernie Sanders refers to the Koch Brothers and Sheldon Adelson when he discusses this problem. Charles and David Koch spent $400 million in 2012. The Kochs spent twice as much as the top ten unions combined. The vast majority of the money is coming from conservative billionaires who are trying to buy the government, so that Social Security and Medicare can be killed, their taxes can be lowered, and regulations gutted.
Their one and only desire is to control every level of government. Today’s ruling illustrates the fact that they already control the Supreme Court. The Ryan budget and the House agenda show that they control the Republican majority in the House of Representatives. In 2014 they are coming for the Senate, and in 2016, they want the White House.
Sen. Sanders is fed up, and the American people should be too. Now is the time to join the fight, and support the Vermont senator’s efforts to overturn Citizens United. In the meantime, there is one important thing that every concerned citizen can do.
Get out and vote. The 2012 election demonstrated that the Koch brothers can buy lots of ads, but they still can’t buy your vote.
Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
