:
http://blogs.alternet.org/speakeasy/2010/10/15/republicans-dont-trust...
Republican fund-raisers are treating Americans like little children,
as if the GOP knows best and must shelter the youngsters from the
truth.
It's like when a kindergartner asks his father if mommy is coming
home
soon, and the widower replies that she's on a long business trip. The
parent is attempting to shield the child from the cruel truth, afraid
the little one can't handle it.
That's what Republican campaign fund-raising groups are doing by
concealing their donors from the public. The GOP does not trust
Americans to handle the information. Republican operatives want to
shield voters from knowing who is actually paying for GOP attack ads.
The GOP fears the consequences if Americans know the truth – exactly
which giant corporations and Wall Street banksters are funding
vicious
screeds against Democrats because those covert donors believe
Republicans will deliver for big business.
The secret GOP benefactors are right about one thing: A Republican
majority will work for the rich. In a study of income growth post
WWII, Princeton political scientist Larry Bartels determined that
earnings rose faster at all income levels under Democratic
administrations, but especially for the middle class and the poor.
Under Republican presidents, the wealthiest benefited the most,
increasing income inequality.
After the conservative majority on the U.S. Supreme Court struck down
decades of precedent in January in its Citizens United ruling,
defining corporations as "persons" and permitting them to pour
unlimited cash into political advertising, Democrats offered
legislation to temper that newly-granted corporate power. Called the
DISCLOSE Act – for Democracy Is Strengthened by Casting Light on
Spending in Elections — it would have required revelation of
corporate
donations.
Republicans wanted concealment of their corporate sources, however,
and scuttled the DISCLOSE Act. This freed private political fund-
raising groups to take as much money as they can from corporations
while providing a cloak of anonymity.
The Republican and Democratic parties still must disclose donors, and
unions like the United Steelworkers (USW), which get their political
action committee contributions from American members, must provide
detailed information on how much they spend, which candidates they
support, and the names of people who supply in-kind services as well
as the value of the services.
The story of health insurers' disclosed contributions to political
parties reveals why Republicans prefer to keep Americans in the dark
about gifts to GOP private fund-raising groups.
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