This just in from the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee:
Friend -- The Koch brothers and their friends funneled $20,000,000 into a final push to buy the Senate. This is NOT good:
* Republicans just took the financial edge in EIGHT races.
* The GOP must gain only SIX seats to take control.
* The Senate is now projected to come down to a single seat that could flip EITHER WAY.
It’s all up to you: If you help fund our Emergency Media Campaign, we can get on the air, match GOP attacks dollar for dollar, and win. But if we fall short before the midnight deadline, unanswered attacks could tip the Senate to the GOP in the final 18 days.
This must stop.
I remember all the issues-oriented mail flooding my mailbox during election season just a few short years ago. Before Citizens United, mud was flung, but it was about someone's error in the last debate, or some juicy dirt about a candidate's voting record. Today's political mail reads more like a Black Friday sale flyer, or some kind of sick money game pitting David against Goliath, which it is.
Every time we the people frantically scrape together another war chest, the opposition launches another salvo from its virtually unlimited coffers.
David: Tens of thousands of hours by people considering, writing and processing 3-dollar payments. Goliath: One well-paid accountant responding to a five-minute phone call to drop the next million-dollar bomb, then off to the golf course. Yes, individually participating in our democracy is important, especially during voting season. But when half our democracy's conversation is being driven essentially by one soulless, well-oiled machine? Not so much.
We play The Money Game because we fear that we have to, but let's not kid ourselves. Three-dollar checks by themselves will not compete with Citizens United. However, it's the constant barrage of communication reminding us of the real challenge that matters most. Let's do what we can, then after November, double down with each other and increase pressure on our representatives to fix this well-documented mistake of a ruling, once and for all.