Campaign Contributions Do Frame Politicans

Campaign Contributions Do Frame Politicians 

No fair-minded person could ever accuse Bernie Sanders of running a negative campaign against Hillary Clinton. Many Democrats and Independents will not vote for Hillary Clinton under any condition. 

Several things are going on here. The mainstream media are spinning Bernie Sanders win in the New Hampshire primary as just a win from a politician from a neighboring state. Nothing could be further from the truth. The Democratic Party establishment and her supporters have a hard time accepting that Hillary Clinton is a weak and flawed candidate. 

What New Hampshire taught us is that when Hillary Clinton tries to sell us that no one owns her and that she never has changed her position because of influence peddling no one is buying. Hillary Clinton lost across all demographics in New Hampshire except those who make over 200 thousand a year and the elderly.

In the last debate with Bernie Sanders Hillary Clinton posed a question when has money ever influenced her decision making? One of Hillary's biggest weakness or flaws is she seems to forget from one minute to the next what she has said or done in her political past. She tends to insult the political intelligence of the Progressive and Independent voter. Case in point came from an interview conducted by highly respected reporter Bill Moyers with now highly popular Democratic senator from Massachusetts Elizabeth Warren.

Bill Moyers Interview With Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) 

This interview done several years ago was before Elizabeth Warren became a Congresswoman. As of the rendition of this essay, Elizabeth Warren is the only female senator who has not endorsed Hillary Clinton. In fact, Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders have been leaders in lockstep with many of the issues that matter to progressive voters. The Trans-Pacific Partnership [TPP] is a prime example. 

For The Record

There are several things incredible about Hillary Clinton claim that she hasn't been influenced by her donors and speech circuit customers. Also, it is not just a matter of changing positions based on contributions. When we talk about corporate conglomerates like Goldman Sachs they don't contribute to a political campaign without a reason. To think otherwise is political blindness. The campaign donations Hillary Clinton has received from Wall Street over the course of her political career is nothing more than a show of confidence that they trust her to look out for their best interest. 

Basic human nature and common sense should tell any even-minded person campaign contributions come with strings attached and for Hillary Clinton to suggest otherwise shows another one of her flaws disingenuousness. 

Hillary Clinton operatives and her supporters get annoyed when you tie her to the record of her husband, former President Bill Clinton. However, the facts show they have been a political partnership for over 40 years. It's a political duo. Both have acted in each others interest on more than one occasion. In fact, it's a political strategy that has worked well for both Bill and Hillary.

Bill Clinton

Bill Clinton administration was responsible for much of the deregulation of Wall Street and Finance that led to the "Big Bank Bailouts," in 2008. His repeal of Glass-Steagall provided a pathway for less oversight, and many expert economists have stated it played a significant role as well. Hillary Clinton was standing by her man and to this day does not support reinstating an updated version of Glass-Steagall. Hillary Clinton was an architect of what became known as the "New Democrats." The ideology was a centrist one that developed after the 1988 election of Republican George H.W. Bush. The philosophy of what many call the " Clinton Democrats" is nothing more than " Neoliberalism," at its finest. [See Article] The "Clinton Democratic" platform is Wall Street friendly, corporate friendly, robust on crime, and in bed with the Military Industrial Complex.

This political mantra is who Hillary Clinton has been for decades. Firms like Goldman Sachs trust her, the corporate elites worship the ground she walks on, and moderate centrist Republicans don't mind her one bit and would much rather she win the Democratic nomination than anti-establishment candidate Bernie Sanders.

In a recent campaign speech in New Hampshire, Hillary Clinton talked about the role George Bush II played in the deregulation that led to the 2008 crash. In that speech, she made no reference whatsoever to the role her husband administration played. In the many pages of books Hillary Clinton has written over the years, she has never criticized, apologized, or admitted that the Clinton administration's repeal of " Glass-Steagall," was an important factor in causing the financial crisis in 2008.

At the same time, she praised the "ending welfare as we know it reforms" put in place by her husband administration that kicked thousand off the welfare rolls. This policy created a system of rampant racial biases.[See Source]

These factors as mentioned earlier are now coming back to haunt Hillary Clinton now that the Democratic Party is rapidly shifting from center right to center left. This change within the Democratic Party is the cause of the problems the Clinton campaign is having with progressives, independents, and young voters in the 2016 Democratic primary.

Bernie Sanders

There is no doubt that Wall Street and the markets will go into freak out mode if Bernie Sanders becomes president. The format that is in place now demands that a president succumbs to the demands of Wall Street, and this applies to current President Obama as well. There is no denying that the forces on Wall Street are very powerful. A Bernie Sanders presidency will undoubtedly have significant hurdles to overcome and will face Republican obstructionism much like President Obama but no one is claiming the change will be easy. 

There is and idea that more public owned banking would be a great place to start. Many have suggested this would circumvent the mantra of too big to fail, too big to jail, and is the essence of Democratic Socialism. Hence, Bernie Sanders campaign desires to break up the big banks. 

Once again we are seeing a very volatile stock market. [See Source] There are signs that we are heading for another melt down, according to some economic pundits, and you don't hear any mention of this on the campaign trail, why? 

The Federal Reverse has recently started withdrawing some of its stimulus in an attempt to return American back to a more normal monetary policy. Our economy has been dependent upon trillions of dollars of infusions for years and now they are taking it away. This is an enormous change in the financial environment and the volatility in the markets are reflecting this change. Often, in America serious issues are not discussed on the campaign trail, but Bernie Sanders has been out front on these matters since day one. 

As a collective the Global economy is slowing this reflected by the lowering of prices for oil for example. The fossil fuel industry markets have become nothing more than a speculation arena for years now. There is a massive fossil fuel lobby in Washington and their buying off politicians through campaign contributions is legendary. Current Democratic Party presidential candidate Hillary Clinton has received massive campaign contributions from the fossil fuel lobby. [See Source] 

The Bernie Sanders campaign has become a political tidal wave. 

Campaign contribution do frame our politicians today. Our research here in the House Of Public Discourse is finding that many progressives, independents, and young voters will not support Hillary Clinton no matter if she wins the Democratic nomination largely because of who her campaign donors are. 

One thing the mainstream media and the Democratic establishment are failing to comprehend is the current political revolution is way more than just Bernie Sanders campaign. Bernie Sanders has pointed this out from the beginning. The Bernie Sanders campaign has been a catalyst in bringing to the light from the dark  the overall dissatisfaction the American people have with our status quo political process. Bernie Sanders campaign is resonating with not just young folks but people from all demographic spectrum's. The once-taboo word Socialist not only doesn't invoke fear as it once did people are now embracing the term and liking it. In fact, a recent poll indicated that 47% of Americans would vote for a  Socialist, which is great news for the Sanders campaign. [See Source]

The very unorthodox political campaign that Bernie Sanders is running has not only resonated with young people it has caught the attention of individuals who have disenfranchised themselves from the political process. Sanders, the longest running Independent senator in the history of American politics, has threaded the needle of being a politician that has run against both establishment parties, and voters well receive his message on wealth inequality. Moreover, his not taking campaign contributions from corporations and not having a SuperPac have gained him rock star popularity with the American electorate. 

The problem with the Hillary Clinton campaign is her sudden shift from center-right politics to center-left highlights the fears many progressive voters have about establishment politics and creates vast voids of trust and the fact that Hillary has accepted campaign contributions from major corporations and her SuperPac fund raising just solidifies this mindset. 

The fact is Hillary Clinton is a flawed candidate. There are many people not just from the right who dislike her she has a huge personality problem that says I, not us. She has a record that speaks for itself regarding her destructive war-hawk agenda, and her many scandals including in the present concerning an FBI investigation into her use of a private email server. 

There is one glaring reality that has manifested itself in the 2016 Democratic presidential race the more people come to know Bernie Sanders and his consistent record the more they like him. The opposite goes for Hillary Clinton. The more people learn about her history, the less they like her. Hillary Clinton has an ethical problem. And, the fact that she is the darling of Wall Street and continues to accept their campaign contributions just adds fuel to the fire which says " Campaign Contributions Do Frame A Politician."

The American Dream Has Been Hijacked By The Capitalists

As a kid growing up in rural North Carolina, I often remember hearing the term ” The American Dream.” It brought  a vision of a white house with a white picket fence, with Mommy and sister Suzy playing homemaker inside the house while father and son played pitch and catch in the backyard with the family pet barking for attention. What a utopia setting it brought to my mind. We were Americans fighting for what was right and fair and a sense of community filled the air. Democracy was the way, and Communism was the evil society trying to destroy our way of life. I distinctly remember people would leave their front doors to their houses unlocked and the keys to the family car in the ignition. What happened? The American Dream has been hijacked by the capitalists and their thirst for profits. Two quotes come to mind with the end of this dream:

Growth for the sake of growth is the ideology of the cancer cell. – Edward Abbey

A growing nation is the greatest Ponzi game ever contrived. – Paul Samuelson

Capitalism is Killing Democracy 

Our roles in a market economy and democracy have slipped by the wayside. It is our responsibility to a congruent society to participate in keeping our democratic traditions vibrant while keeping our markets and political mechanisms from running wild.

Free markets were supposed to lead to free societies. Instead, today’s supercharged global economy is eroding the power of the people in democracies around the globe. Welcome to a world where … government takes a back seat to big business. …(Robert Riech)

There was always this misconception that if capitalism flourished so would our democratic principles and way of life. Today in this new age of vulture capitalism we see this is not the case. In fact, we see the very opposite. Capitalism… is thriving, while democracy is struggling to keep up. China, for example, over the years has transitioned into free-markets but not political freedom. There are other countries like Mexico and Russia who claim they are democracies but like the Untied States have allowed elitists and corporations to hijack the politicians who in turn limit government's capacity to adjust and address the concerns of its citizenry.

Though free markets have brought unprecedented prosperity to many, they have been accompanied by widening inequalities…, heightened job insecurity, and environmental hazards such as global warming.

The side-effect of this has been an alarming equality gap that has splintered the nations’ democracies around the world, including that of the United States. A representative democracy is designed to allow citizens to deal with these inequalities in a structured, balanced way. However, this has not been the reality, and most people feel a sense of powerlessness that is on the rise in all the world’s democracies. What we are seeing around the world and here in America is the failure of the trickle-down economic theory that reared its ugly head back during the Reagan years and an uncompromising collective pride to admit it was a mistake.

No democratic nation is effectively coping with capitalism’s negative side effects.

Capitalism is an economic system in which trade, industry and the means of production are controlled by private owners with the goal of making profits in a market economy.( Wiki)

The real function of capitalism is to expand the economic pie. Nothing more, nothing less. The role of democracy [government] is to allow citizens through public discourse and their elected officials to collectively determine how that economic pie is to be divided and determine what rules should apply to both the private good and the public good. Nowadays, due to several mitigating factors these choices are being left to the markets. We The People need to take immediate action and task ourselves to delineate the role of global capitalism versus democracy. The free-marketeers have clearly shown a cavalier attitude towards democracy and have created a survival of the fittest mentality and let the losers fend for themselves. Corporations have treated this like a game but unlike most games they have created one who plays by no rules. We The People must ensure that there are rules and guidelines for these corporations to go by and adhere to, who now have the advantage of being treated as a person, with the knowledge that there will be repercussions for not doing so.

It has become all so clear that if the main function of capitalism is to allow corporations to play the markets with earnest zeal we must as citizens challenge ourselves to stop these modern-day economic entities parading as persons from being the writers of their rules.  If not, the question of the growing inequality in America will only get worst. We The People, living in a democratic form of government,  can counteract this  capitalistic conquer all approach culture. The cost to our society and the forever shrinking opportunity to actualize the American dream is at stake. However, due to our lack of interest and our feelings of helplessness, we continue to allow corporations and companies through their battalions of  lobbyists, public relations, and now special interest Super-Pacs like Citizens United and others, to walk the dog all over us while pretending to be acting for the public good. The bottom line over and again has proved that these business entities only desire to maximize profits with little to no consideration for the common public good.

Why is this? We The People have become disabled from the democratic process largely due to the ever-increasing influence of money in our political sphere. Greater sums of money are flowing into the process with a bribe here and a kickback there. This behavior has resulted in laws being passed that have created an atmosphere of imbalance. This reality has created, for lack of term, an ”arms race” for political influence that has suffocated the voice of the everyday citizen.

The purpose of democracy is to accomplish ends we cannot achieve as individuals.

This truism has been circumvented and cannot be utilized because of the ever-increasing influx of money into the political process. This influx of money has allowed these business entities to advance their agendas while leaving most of us to stand in line waiting for some imaginary trickle down effect to meretriciously manifest itself.  In the meantime, we are seeing growing job insecurity, widening of inequality and the destroying of our environment.

In closing, this writer feels compelled to implore all of the citizens of democracies all over the world to rise and let your disdain for this cancer on our democracy be heard. Silence is not golden here it is a detriment. We The People have within us, collectively, the power to reduce this social cost to the fabric of our societies. We must take our roles as citizens seriously. The very first step, which is the most difficult, is to get our thinking straight by realizing, The American Dream Has Been Hijacked By The Capitalists.

  

The Repackaging Of The Fascist Playbook

Just like Joseph Goebbels, who headed the Nazi propaganda machine, present day pundits like Alex Jones, Sean Hannity, Glenn Beck, and politicians like Ron Paul are making the same claims today as did Goebbels in Nazi Germany.


There seems to be a growing reality concerning the Libertarian and Tea Party movements in this country and can best be summed up in a phrase, “conspiracy nut balls.” While claiming to be all about freedom and liberty, any fair evaluation of their agenda tells a much deeper and darker story. These groups seem to stay up nights trying to erode our civil right to live a quality life. Moreover, their platform would have us barely existing, languishing in debt. They have been successful in many regions of this nation, through their highly funded media echo chambers, at taking away many of our social protections and denying the American people the social justice We The People have fought so hard for over the years.

For example, politicians like former Texas Senator Ron Paul and his son Senator Rand Paul (R-Ky), backed by special interest groups funded by the likes of the Koch Brothers, have executed a media campaign to distort and diminish public support for fair social safety net programs. Their delusional anti-government claims of socialism, among others, have deceived and scared and convinced droves of people into believing their government is out to get them and is something much less than  "of, by, and for the people.”

We The People Are The Government.

Not just the wealthy, perfectly healthy, spoiled easy-come trust fund successful entrepreneurs. The Tea Party and Libertarian movements in this country amount to nothing more than Social Darwinism. Their agenda is plutocracy. They demonize government as evil. They demonize groups of citizens with the intent to divide and conquer. All in all, this is nothing more than the repackaging of the Fascist playbook. Just like we saw in the late 1930’s and early 1940’s. With unconstitutional overreach by the Judicial branch, which upheld the claim money as free speech and corporate person-hood, we have seen this type behavior before from the Anarcho-Capitalist Corporatism of Nazi Germany. 

In these modern times, we see advocates and pundits like Ron Paul, Alex Jones, Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh, and Lou Dobbs put on their Joseph Goebbels mask spewing all sorts of conspiracy propaganda lies against all types of groups and minorities. All  these people are doing is propagating the desires of the wealthiest people in our country and the world like the Koch Brothers. These reckless capitalist want nothing more than to have all forms of regulation out of their midst. Just like the Nazi, they disdain the chronically ill, poor, disabled and out of work Americans. They embrace voter suppression laws for they know their leverage goes up if the voter turnouts are low. Disabled, welfare poor people are nothing more than parasites that should do nothing more than fend for themselves.

In today’s society, the Nazi propaganda takes the form from the pamphlets of old to conspiracy websites, radio talk shows, cable news and now social media Facebook pages. Just like in Nazi Germany, in the 1930’s and 40’s, we see the demoralization of vast segments of our citizenry. The Tea Party crowd, as well as the so-called Libertarians, have blamed people’s economic despair on everything but their failed austerity policies. Groups like liberals, socialist, immigrants, freemasons, minorities have all been targeted.

The Tea Party, GOP and the Libertarians know their agenda is a minority viewpoint. Just like in Germany, they understand they have no shot of gaining influence in a unified America. They understand that their only chance of getting their platform in practice is to cause a polarization of the American people. By using prejudice and institutional racism as their weapons, they have attempted and with much success to split this country into small groups just like the Nazi did in WWII Europe.

We The People must realize that this massively funded propaganda attack has a purpose.

Who stands to benefit from this propaganda? Is it the middle-class? Is it the moderate and working poor? No, it’s the corporations and the elitist who need We The People out of their business so they can run their enterprise to the detriment of our environment, our workforce, all in the name of capitalism and the free markets. This is not a classroom theory this is history repeating itself.  The right-wing, the Libertarians, the Tea Party are using Social Darwinism to demonize and separate groups for the purpose of demonizing them as threats to our country,our culture, our society as threats to our free markets and democracy. It’s scapegoating 101. Just like the Nazi Party, these radical modern-day organizations have waged a war against equality of the person. They don’t want free healthcare for all. They don’t want a good free public education to survive. They have cut programs to the poor, sick, veterans of wars, taxed the middle class while giving huge tax breaks to the upper one percent. These are not theories they are facts. Moreover, they have ostracized groups who have tried to help these segments of our population. Calling them socialists, communists, and have turned the word "liberals" into a pejorative. Name calling is their forte  which they have made into a science.

Don’t Be Swindled By The Hype

Many fell prey to this rhetoric just as many have bought into it hook, line and sinker today in America. Hitler needed suckers as do the Koch Brothers and what better way than to revisit the tactics of a madman who for a time had all of Europe at his feet. They need people to do lots of hard work for cheap and shunned the unions and have fought against the massive inequality that has come to pass in present day America. Matter of fact, it was Unions and Organized labor that were the biggest enemies to the Nazis and  to the Ron Paul’s of this present day. Organized labor demanded fair pay and safe working conditions and other worker benefits. The Tea Party and Libertarians require no minimum wage, no regulation and desire a desperate under-educated demoralized worker.

All the mindless sheep followers of the Tea Party and Libertarians are, is the Aryan Nazis of yesteryear. The Koch Brothers, and others like them, with their Americans for Prosperity, Citizens United, Cato Institute, all born from the John Birch Society genre, have systematically distorted the real facts, and replaced them with lies for decades now.

They abolish the truth by attacking it. They claim it's one big government scheme to take your rights away. Then they create a false reality. Then they tell you what you hear in traditional historical mainstream media and other educational sources is propaganda. The old ” bait and switch.” It's ” Big Brother,” coming to get you. Conspiracy, to hide the truth, planned lies to confuse and deceive us all.

There has been a game-plan with a playbook for decades, now.

This game-plan and subsequent playbook, are their way of brainwashing people, to incite paranoid suspicion, and cause people to lose faith in traditional scientifically well-established academia. Their goal is to get you to question long-held views and realities, all of which have been drawn from easily verifiable accurate authorities in news, science and history.

The Tea Party and Libertarians are anti-intellectuals.

Hitler hated mainstream established knowledge, science, publicly funded schools and institutes of higher learning. He claimed they were bastions of Liberals, Communists, Zionists, and Socialists. Hitler ruled the German people with speeches of hate and lies that these groups were spies trying to deceive the real Aryan German. 

The Tea Party and their Libertarian counterparts have a similar hatred of historical record and facts. They highly question reality and facts. Scientists question reality by using inductive reasoning. But the Tea Party and Libertarians use deductive reasoning. This type of argument is surely not intellectual nor science in any manner. These organizations run on gut feelings based on misguided indoctrination, false assumptions, and faith in preconceived notions no matter their validity or not.

In Nazi Germany, the cost of higher education became so expensive that attendance at these colleges and universities fell some 50%.

One of the bigger topics, in present day America, is the high cost and the coinciding debt that is associated with getting a good education today. What better way to brainwash people with conspiracies, than to keep people dumb and too poor  to be able to get an affordable public education. Then hammer away in their Koch Brothers media echo chambers that getting a great education from public schools and universities is not needed cause there nothing more than enclaves of Socialism.

In this writer's viewpoint, the real conspiracy is the far-right's push against getting a college education and anti-intellectualism. Just last election cycle we saw this from radical presidential candidate Rick Santorum a Tea Party type of guy.

Just like Joseph Goebbels, who headed the Nazi propaganda machine, present day pundits like Alex Jones, Sean Hannity, Glenn Beck, and politicians like Ron Paul are making the same claims today as did Goebbels did in Nazi Germany. They claim that the two-party system is broken and, in fact, a scam. They even claim that traditional Republicans are not far-right enough for them and that all Democrats are nothing more than liberal socialists. Just like the Nazis, they hate any government-run or funded anything (except the military, of course).

The Tea Party and Libertarians hate government, they claim the IRS, welfare, regulations, taxes and the Federal Reserve and Keynesian economics are nothing more than socialist, communist plots. Fear-mongering is their order of the day and the base of their playbook. This is where all claims by these radical far-right groups of valuing freedom of speech, freedom of expression, equality and other liberties they defend and fight for fall apart when put under a close study. When you inductively and rationally examine their ideology, economics, and theories, you find a huge disconnect with what these do in practice.

In fact, in most cases, they inhibit and weaken and destroy these very liberties and freedoms. In this year there will be much debate on which direction America should take and this writer would suggest examining the issues to look at your motivations and why you think as you do and make an honest evaluation as to how you came to that view and most importantly participate because there are factions who do not want you to and are spending huge sums of money to discourage you from doing so. What we are seeing in practice  from the Tea Party, Libertarians, and the radical far-right Koch Brothers funded think tanks, is the repackaging of the Fascist playbook.

The United States Of Koch, And Why It's Wrong For America

Recently the infamous Koch Brothers held their annual " Who Wants To Be President," convention in Palm Springs, California. It's  a gathering of the  who's who of Millionaires and Billionaires in America. The primary focus of the conference is to decide who will be the Koch Brothers' " puppet on a string" for the  upcoming 2016 Presidential race. ABC's Jonathan Karl moderated the discussion between the prospective presidential hopefuls.

The overall narrative of the event is to schmooze the Koch Brothers for their money. 

This activity is not how our democracy should work. This activity is how our democracy has been corrupted.  It's well  known that the Koch's have a political infrastructure across the United States that buys politicians and uses this leverage to manipulate public policy. It was reported in the New York Times that the Koch's will be spending more money on the 2016 election than both parties  [See Article] What's sad is that many who follow politics will not be shocked by this information.

What Would Our Founding Fathers Think About The Koch Brothers?

Read Jefferson To Kercheval Here


Jefferson To Kercheval
Source: Library of Congress

  

"Those seeking profits where they are given total freedom will not be the ones to trust to keep the government pure and our rights secure." [Thomas Jefferson]

There is a long history in America of those seeking to amass vast fortunes as being the source of corruption in our governance.  One must take into account the year this correspondence was written.  In 1816 England, there was no such thing as a middle class. You had a minuscule percentage who were rich and a large group of working people that constituted the working poor. Yes, there were a few people who were doctors, lawyers, and shop owners that made up a minor middle class, but for the most part in England you had no middle-class influence whatsoever. Sounds like America today?

One of Jefferson's main points in this letter was that by keeping the people undereducated and poor, it abated them from calling their oppressive oligarchy government into account for these inequalities. We see this taking shape in America today. In the Republican Party and its Tea-Party and Libertarian factions, there is a "go fend for yourselves" attitude. Jefferson made reference to the abusive state of man against man, and we see this being played out daily in our news feed.  To the point, Jefferson and the rest of the founding fathers would be turning over in their graves. The modern-day Republicans, the ones with any intellect, are still misguided and follow the flawed philosophy of Thomas Hobbes.[See Source] In Jefferson's letter to Kercheval, he [Jefferson] was explicit in his disagreement with Hobbes. 
 

Thomas Jefferson To James Madison 1785 Letter Concerning Equality In America [See Letter]

Thomas Jefferson

"Another means of silently lessening the inequality of property is to exempt all from taxation below a certain point and to tax the higher portions of the property in geometrical progression as they rise. " 

 One of Jefferson's main points even back in 1826 in a letter to William B Giles was that America was already moving towards an Aristocracy.

Jefferson, an old man at the time, pointed out that some in the John Adams wing [Federalist] looked to a single and splendid government of an Aristocracy, founded upon banking, corporations, under the guise and cloak of their favorite branches of manufacturing, commerce, and navigation. The modern-day examples would be the oil barons, defense industry, and Wall Street, riding and ruling over the plundered plowman and the everyday people of this nation. If the overgrown wealth of an individual, for example Father Koch,  who helped start the John Birch Society, is to be deemed dangerous to the state, is the best corrective measure  the law of equal inheritance to all in equal degree? An inheritance tax.

The United States of Koch, And Why Is It Wrong For America?

 Everyone has heard of the Koch Brothers, even a casual observer of politics, right? Wrong! A George Washington University poll conducted in 2014 found that 52% of likely voters have never heard of the Koch Brothers. [See Source] This fact does not surprise this writer. 70% of the American people don't take part in the political process so keeping up with politics is not the order of the day for most Americans.  What is upsetting is that these people haven't a clue how these two brothers have a daily impact on their lives. The Koch Brothers have more wealth [100 Billion combined] than the bottom 40% of Americans put together. What is now Koch Industries Inc, began as Wood River Oil and Refining Co in 1940. Based in Wichita, Kansas, Koch Industries is one of the largest corporations in America. They have many subsidiaries involved in manufacturing, trading, and investments. The Brothers own 84% percent of Koch Industries, a massive company and conglomerate with investments in oil, fertilizer, electronics components, and even toilet paper. The firm employs over 50k people in the U.S. and 100k worldwide.[See Source]

See: How you support the Koch Brothers (even if you don’t know it)

So the next time you go to the bathroom to do your business you very well could be wiping your butt with the Koch Brothers. Many questions come to this writer's mind concerning the Koch Brothers. Why don't they just go on making their billions? Why do they feel the need to inject themselves into our government at such an overwhelming level? Is it the power? Do they feel with this wealth they have accumulated they have the right to lord it over us mere minions of society? Most people involved in politics know the importance of Television ads during an election cycle. Even though there is some debate on the topic, many Americans base their choice on a candidate by these ads. An example of this would be Jesse Ventura, ex-wrestler who won the Minnesota Governor's race based mainly on his award-winning Televisions ads. Undoubtedly, Television ads play a significant role in a political election. 

Low and Behold, Here Comes Citizen United!

The Supreme Court decision in 2010 to allow unfettered amounts of dark money into our political process has enabled the Koch Brothers to be like a " kid in a candy store." It has allowed the Koch's and other Billionaires like them to set up they're own political mechanism separate from the political parties. They [Koch Brothers] started providing massive sums of money directly to a candidate of their choice and creating their media campaigns  to sway public opinion toward their views. In the 2014 election cycle, " Americans For Prosperity," a Koch Brothers political front group, aired more than 17,000 broadcast TV ads, compared with only 2,100 aired by Republican Party groups. What this reveals to us is the overall influence these brothers had in the 2014 Mid-Term Election. Under Citizens United, the Koch Brothers, Super-Pacs, and Corporations can lie because they are not held to any standard. They can bold-faced lie on a Television Ad without any recompense.

Scott Walker Gov.(R-WI)

Even though most Americans disapprove of the Citizens United decision, our elected politicians refuse to overturn it with legislation. If we are going to have this unlimited amount of money allowed into the political process it's the position of the House of Public Discourse, we must have full disclosure. We[The House] suggest this should be the responsibility of the person running for public office. We The People need to know just whose hip-pocket these candidates are in. In jest, we need these candidates walking around in NASCAR suits wearing the logos of just who is sponsoring their campaigns. 

However, the way the system of things is set up now the Koch Brothers can spend millions to billions on a political election. They don't  have to be honest or accurate; they can just simply spatter the right-wing media echo chamber with untruthful propaganda. We have the " Roberts Court" to thank for this most unhealthy addition to our political process.