In the PBS NewsHour / POLITICO Democratic debate Senator Warren took Mayor Pete Buttigieg to task for his Wine Cave fundraiser with uber rich donors.
So, the mayor just recently had a fundraiser that was held in a wine cave, full of crystals, and served $900-a-bottle wine. Think about who comes to that. He had promised that every fundraiser he would do would be open-door, but this one was closed-door. We made the decision many years ago that rich people in smoke-filled rooms would not pick the next president of the United States. Billionaires in wine caves should not pick the next president of the United States.
This exchange set off an explosion of outrage from pundits and centrist Democrats at the suggestion that money buys influence in politics.
The CNN talking heads all yammered on about “purity tests” and that Warren and Sanders wanted to have Democrats fight with one hand behind their back. Van Jones said that it was elitist and it would make “a lot of people feel left out”. Really??? Now it’s elitist to deny billionaires private access to candidates? Any citizen can go online and donate to the candidate of their choice. This isn't about that, it’s about buying special one on one facetime with candidates to discuss your very special “concerns” that ordinary citizens can’t get.
The poor billionaires are outraged that they should be treated as ordinary citizens with no special access to candidates for their bundled maxed out donations. They are now expected to get in line with a bunch of common nurses, teachers and construction workers for a chance at a selfie with a candidate? They are now expected to just make an online donation like some ordinary schmuck without any personal assurances from the candidate that they understand their special and very important needs. Don’t Democrats know how special they are!!!! No wonder billionaire Democratic donors are threatening to vote for Trump if Warren or Sanders are the nominee.
Centrist Democrats and the pundits on corporate media are all now making the argument that conservatives made in Citizens United. Billionaires bundling maxed out contributions at private fundraisers are just citizens exercising their right to free speech, supporting the candidates of their choice like any citizen and can not be seen as a corrupting influence.
Every regular American who works for a paycheck and is not a highly paid shill for corporate America or a politician receiving tons of cash from rich donors knows that is absolute BS. Associate Justice John Paul Stevens argued that the court's ruling in Citizen United represented:
"a rejection of the common sense of the American people, who have recognized a need to prevent corporations from undermining self government."
Everyone has enough common sense to know what Justice Stevens said is true. It’s why government works for the rich and not for them and the reason? The rich bought the government they wanted. That’s what fancy Wine Cave fundraisers are for.
The fact that Warren and Sanders have out-raised other candidates without giving face time and private access to billionaires is causing a panic. The lock that the uber rich had on Democratic party policy as gatekeepers too funding has been blown away by crowdfunded campaigns. Now regular working stiffs can buy the government they want, just like billionaires and they don’t need Wine Caves with crystal chandeliers to do it.
No surprise that self-appointed Democratic concern troll Wine Cave Pete is point man for the Citizens United Democrats. Mayor Pete qualifies every nod to progressive policy with some solemnly delivered talking point straight out of the Wall Street Journals editorial page whether it’s about the national debt, taxes or now, his channeling Republicans on the actual effect of donations from the 1%
Justice Stevens got it right. The American people have enough common sense to know exactly what the impact of money in politics is. They can see right through the BS that the Citizen United Democrats are peddling.
I am adding a few words from Obama on the subject:
I can’t assume that the money chase didn’t alter me in some ways. …
Increasingly I found myself spending time with people of means — law firm partners and investment bankers, hedge fund managers and venture capitalists. As a rule, they were smart, interesting people, knowledgeable about public policy, liberal in their politics, expecting nothing more than a hearing of their opinions in exchange for their checks. But they reflected, almost uniformly, the perspectives of their class: the top 1 percent or so of the income scale that can afford to write a $2,000 check to a political candidate.
Still, I know that as a consequence of my fund-raising I became more like the wealthy donors I met, in the very particular sense that I spent more and more of my time above the fray, outside the world of immediate hunger, disappointment, fear, irrationality, and frequent hardship of the other 99 percent of the population.