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Why US Looks Like China, Iran, and Russia

by John on 07/24/2015

Politically, we Americans resemble Russia, China, and Iran more than we think we do.

I say this a lot on posts. Many of you think I am a little “out there” posting this. So let me explain in detail what I’m seeing.

Podcast here if you want to listen.

Look closely and you see that our laws – like laws in those countries – are made by a few power-elites who control the wealth in those countries.

Iran has the mullahs; Russia the Kremlin; and China with the Communist Party of China.

The US has the political elites in the Republican and Democrat parties working together – as one.

Think about it.

When a Republican comes out with a strong attack ad, the Democrat then goes to his or her donors and asks for more money to combat it. I get emails all day from one candidate or another asking for money to beat back an opponent that is raising a ton of money against them.

And look at how many special interests give money to candidates on both sides. One of Hillary Clinton’s biggest donors when she ran for Senate was Fox News’ Rupert Murdoch. These big donors hedge their bets – to curry favor on both sides – to get the laws they want.

And that takes precedent with lawmakers, since the majority of those dollars come from special interests, not from the people of the United States.

And the parties – backed by these special interest dollars – determine who can actually be on the ballot and run for office. The Supreme Leader in Iran does the same. China is telling people in Hong Kong who can run and who can’t.

Same here. So in the US, we usually get two candidates who are chosen for us based on how much money they have gathered from wealthy special interests.

Then when they get into office, they are not held to any checks and balances on how they vote.

A lot of people scream about America becoming socialist, but this shows us leaning towards fascism.

It all has to do with our campaign finance laws.

Here’s why these laws are so freaking stupid.

First, these laws breed corruption. It screams payola. Someone puts a ton of money into a campaign and that lawmaker then has to vote what that donor wants. As a journalist, I had to disclose if anyone paid me money to put a story on the air.

Judges have to recuse themselves from a trial if there’s a conflict of interest. But lawmakers don’t. Why? They make the rules.

Which leads to the second point.

The argument that giving gobs of money to a candidate is free speech is absolutely insane. This just defies logic. Why should a Sheldon Adelson or George Soros have a bigger say with lawmakers than I do?

Third reason these laws are so bad is that it reduces federal tax revenues. These people and special interests get tax deductions for this. Besides reducing federal tax revenues, it puts a greater burden on a depleted IRS.

Then we get to blame the IRS for being even more inundated when they can’t keep up with determining if these deductions are legal.

This is where conservatives are brilliant in their hypocrisy. Many of them call for a flat tax – with no deductions. I am for it too. But conservatives do little to push the idea. Why? Because this current tax structure gives them massive tax deductions to influence politicians to get the laws they want – while at the same time overburdening the IRS – giving them the chance to scream about how we need more small government when in reality they are creating even bigger government.

The fourth reason is we don’t need all this money for campaigns. The main reason you see so much money is television. You don’t hear any major television news companies complaining about the campaign financing laws. Nope. They make a ton of money from it.

I wrote about this in my book. When I was a news anchor negotiating a salary, the salary was much lower in a non-presidential election years. Why? Because revenues were way down – due to a lack of campaign ads.

I see it today too. Just the other day, a client wanted to buy TV ad time. We were told to buy it now for end of 2015 because the rates were only going to get higher in 2016 as the elections got rolling. It’s simple supply and demand. The prices skyrocket as inventory is diminished by all the ads. If you want to get in, you pay a premium.

This is the real media bias – which no one ever talks about. The left right bias is nothing compared to this.

Frankly, candidates can reach people for a lot less money using the internet and smart phones.

The fact we use an entertainment medium like television to discuss the future issues of our country – you are going to get entertainment results.

Just look at the silliness this money gives us in our political debate. Take Donald Trump. The Donald is getting so much traction thanks to the dumb campaign finance laws. He’s financing himself. But he is in this position to take apart the other politicians because they came to him for big money in the past.

This is a double edge sword. First, Trump uncovers the hypocrisy of these politicians. Second, because he has a lot of money he believes his is someone he thinks we should listen to.

Changing this won’t be easy.

A lot of people make a lot of money off this system. This has become a major industry. Plus campaign financing is a great investment for these donors.

So how do we get rid of it?

I would call for a complete stoppage of all campaign donations to any candidate – over 1-thousand dollars.

Since that is unlikely, because Citizens United is the law, how about this?

Allow all donations. But they can only come from individuals. And they cannot be used as a tax deduction.

We need to eliminate political action committees — especially the ones that deliver dark money to candidates. That is the biggest form of corruption or evidence of a fascist totalitarian state.

I don’t know about you, but I want to live in a country where at least I have a say – even if it is a little say. Right now the majority of us have no say. That’s not democracy.

What’s worse is the caliber of people who run for office.

I may be making too fine of a point here.

But if you consider our campaign system as a form of bribery then these politicians are violating some ethical or moral code we grew up on like the old American way of fair play.

But hardly any lawmaker or candidate is doing anything about it.

Sure, some may talk about it.

But they’re not doing anything.

Anyone saying they won’t take any campaign finance money at all? I haven’t heard that.

So if it we consider this a crime against the American public and these people just continue to do it – isn’t that the same as being responsible for a crime when you do nothing to stop it?

I think so.

And until we all start thinking that way welcome to our version of China, Iran, and Russia.

That’s informed not inflamed.

Your turn.

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