Political Irony

3 Comments

1. Arthanyel wrote:

   If you are still unclear about what Occupy Wall Street is protesting, or why they are right, this is an excellent (short) video.

   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wK1MOMKZ8BI

   Note: No communist manifesto, no Nazi rhetoric, no drug smoking hippie causes.

   A Quick Primer on Occupy Wall Street vs. the Tea Party

   OWS is protesting:

   Corporations are too big. They don’t care about average people. Working people are suffering while wealthy corporate heads make bundles of money, exploit or layoff workers, and take away people’s rights.

   The Tea Party is protesting

   Government is too big. They don’t care about average people. Working people are suffering while the government taxes too much, spends too much, and takes away people’s rights.

   What they BOTH should be protesting:

   Corporations donate huge sums of money to the election campaigns of government officials. Government officials of both parties depend on corporate donations to get elected and re-elected. Lobbyists from corporations write legislation, which elected officials adopt. BOTH GOVERNMENT AND CORPORATIONS are responsible for the financial mess we are in, aided and abetted by the courts, whose justices are appointed by the same government officials.

   Some key fun facts:

   16 out of 17 federal elections are won by the candidate with the most money; this means Congress is owned by the rich.

   Corporations outspent unions in campaign donations by a ratio of 50 to 1, and that ratio has DOUBLED in the last 6 years – and that was BEFORE the impact of Citizen’s United.

   Monday, October 31, 2011 at 10:58 am | Permalink
2. starluna wrote:

   Arthanyel – the corporation vs union numbers are astounding. Where did you find that?

   Tuesday, November 1, 2011 at 4:44 pm | Permalink
3. Arthanyel wrote:

   Opensecrets.org, it takes some work to get to it because their numbers are not the easiest to access. I must admit I was quoting someone else that did the research who normally does a solid job (from another blog).

   The primary issue is that while Unions donate directly to campaigns (and are therefore disclosed) the majority of corporate donaitons go through PACs and other fronts that don’t get disclosed by the campaign directly.

   it is also possible the analysis comingled lobbying spend and campaign spend (which is not strictly accurate) but would make sense as corporaitons spend far more on lobbying that unions – unions arent even in the top 20 lobbyist spenders. The #1 is the Chamber of Commerce at approximately 70 MILLION per year. Pfizer spends more alone than any union.

   Tuesday, November 1, 2011 at 5:43 pm | Permalink