Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Carpet bombing negative ads in the Republican presidential primary ... by gimleteye

The old expression is that when your adversaries are firing rounds at each other, stand out of the way and be silent. This characterizes the progressives' view of the Republican presidential primary; an embarrassment for the GOP that the party hopes will not linger once the dust clears.

But even extreme conservatives within the GOP must rue the amount of money being spent to attack each other, leading to the question whether it isn't in the interests of all segments of the political spectrum to bring to a close the gaping wounds opened by the Roberts Supreme Court and the Citizens United decision.

In the first installment of his new public broadcast program, Bill Moyers takes on one of his long-standing topics: "Winner take all politics". If you haven't seen Moyers and Company, look for it. Here is a link to the first show.

American values, independence, and democracy are all turned upside down by campaign finance laws. The only beneficiaries with a reasonable claim to wanting the current system to continue are television broadcast companies and affiliates. Those terrible, awful, miserable campaign ads in 20 second droplets are highly profitable. Why the entire nation should lay down its claim to greatness on the altar of TV political ads is a puzzle that even the GOP should be able to solve. Just don't look to Mitch McConnell or any of the big polluters who support the status quo, to be in favor of change.

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