This piece first appeared at TomDispatch
. Read Tom Engelhardt's introduction.Billionaires with an axe to grind, now is your time. Not since the days before a bumbling crew of would-be break-in artists
set into motion the fabled Watergate scandal,
leading to the first far-reaching restrictions on money in American politics, have you been so free to meddle. There is no limit to the amount of money you can give to elect your friends and allies to political office, to defeat those with whom you disagree, to shape or stunt or kill policy, and above all to influence the tone and content of political discussion in this country.
Today, politics is a rich man's game. Look no further than the 2012 elections and that season's biggest donor, 79-year-old casino mogul
Sheldon Adelson. He and his wife, Miriam, shocked the political class by first
giving $16.5 million in an effort to make Newt Gingrich the Republican presidential nominee. Once Gingrich exited the race, the Adelsons invested
more than $30 million in electing Mitt Romney. They donated millions more to support GOP candidates running for the House and Senate, to
block a pro-union measure in Michigan, and to
bankroll the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and other conservative stalwarts (which waged their own campaigns mostly to helpRepublican candidates for Congress). All told, the Adelsons donated $94 million during the 2012 cycle - nearly four times
the previous record set by liberal financier George Soros. And that's only the money we know about. When you add in
so-called dark money, one estimate puts their total giving at
closer to $150 million.
It was not one of Adelson's better bets. Romney went down in flames; the Republicans failed to retake the Senate and conceded seats in the House; and
the majority of candidates backed by Adelson-funded groups lost, too. But Adelson, who oozes
chutzpah as only a gambling tycoon
worth $26.5 billion could, is undeterred. Politics, he
told the
Wall Street Journal in his first post-election interview, is like poker: "I don't cry when I lose. There's always a new hand coming up." He said he could double his 2012 giving in future elections. "I'll spend that much and more," he said. "Let's cut any ambiguity."
Comment: Meanwhile, Hollande has troops in multiple west African countries blowing things up and causing chaos in order to secure Africa's natural resources for French multinationals like Areva, the world's largest uranium mining/nuclear energy company.
In addition, French jihadists are waging proxy war on behalf of Hollande in Syria.
France's media admits that the Syrian "opposition" is Al Qaida, then justifies French government support to the terrorists
The conflict in Mali has nothing to do with fighting terrorists
At least 50 French citizens 'waging jihad in Syria'
But don't mind all this folks, the real issue is gay marriage, so y'all get protesting about this non-issue and we can all congratulate each other on how free we are.