Posted on 02/17/2020 4:06:25 AM PST by CheshireTheCat
Make no mistake, Michael Bloomberg is buying off opposition with money, usually in the form of charitable (and therefore tax-deductible) or political contributions to voices that otherwise would oppose him. It’s totally legal, but also totally corrupt, for it corrupts the words and actions of important political figures...But is what he is accomplishing really that different from what the “oligarchs” of Ukraine and Russia accomplish? Grabbing control of the apparatus of the state with money is the name of the strategy, only the tactics differ.
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
I would never vote for Bernie in the general election, but given the choice between a communist and a fascist, I have to go with the communist. Antifa is going to wreak havoc anyway. At least Bloomberg gives them a true fascist target.
Bribery is at the heart of democracy.
Elections are won by promising government largess.
True, but Bloomberg has an unprecedented largesse.
Lifson goes on to point out that in order to equal the proportion he “contributed” to various entities while NYC mayor, Bloomberg as presidential candidate, “would have to spend nationally...a “mere” $10.2 billion, roughly a sixth of his fortune. So far, he’s only mentioned $2 billion, but that is spending on his campaign. But he can spend $12 billion easily, and still be worth nearly $50 billion.”
It's still not as big as the pool of public/tax money.
Democracy runs on bribery. The key to winning is to appeal to the most base aspect of human nature. Selfishness.
Bloomberg has a history of racist remarks and policies that would make a Klansman blush. He has treated women like trash, his past comments were far, far beyond anything attributed to Trump. Now it turns out he has trashed farmers and factory workers - as anyone knows, you can grow a crop by digging a hole with a shovel and throwing some seeds and water in it. Hopefully, he and Madame Clinton cannot buy the election but I suspect they may; people are too easily bribed.
The word “democracy” itself has multiple meanings, but most of them boil down to “mob rule” or “surrender of autonomy to a militaristic ruling class”, either anarchy or a socialist dictatorship.
Democracy = fifty percent plus one, which means that an absolute minority of the 49% is slammed into an inferior position, without recourse and without means of negotiating a compromise of any kind.
"People I spoke with recently told me that Eddy Castell, the campaign manager for the Democratic nominee against Bloomberg in 2009, used to say, “The way Bloomberg threw money around, it was more corrupting to the political process than any other elected official.” (When I asked Castell about this, he declined to comment.)"
When you read the whole article, it is impossible to wonder if THAT guy was paid off.
I dislike Bloomberg, not for his money, but for his "ideas". Specifically, his Leftism.
Bloomberg would do well to just stand at the voting booths and hand out money for people to vote for him.
True, but now there is an out-and-out extremely wealthy person buying his way into being able to bribe people through the public treasury.
Ironically, he is running in the same party primary in which an out-and-out admitted socialist, really a closet communist, is running and attacking the power of the rich.
All I am saying is that this campaign season is going to present a real interesting test of the Demoncrats’ value system(s), and I very much look forward to the clash between the two camps.
Was Humphrey as far apart ideologically from McGovern and McCarthy as Sanders is from Bloomberg?
Humphrey at least had the benefit of being VP and twice as many delegates as McCarthy.
Now, hopefully we end up with Sanders leading in pledged delegates by a healthy enough margin that when he is screwed out of the nomination, Antifa will totally go off the rails.
Yeah, yeah, I get it that Vietnam was the issue in 1968 and the positions of the candidates on the war far apart and the major cause of the riots at the Chicago convention...but at least there was some rationality to the violence perpetuated by the young men there in that the desire to not be drafted was driving support for one candidate versus another.
There is just blind hatred and rage driving Antifa. At least in 1968 some of the protesters were just your basic hippies who put down their bongs for a minute and got a little moxy. In 2020, there will be a sea of masked berserkers who will look something like the “peacekeepers” out of The Hunger Games but in black uniforms, not white, and whose drug of choose is stronger than pot.
‘I have to go with the communist’
Well why not get the hell out of here and head for Cuba or Venezuela.
[Bribery is at the heart of democracy.
Elections are won by promising government largess.]
[True, but now there is an out-and-out extremely wealthy person buying his way into being able to bribe people through the public treasury.]
Bloomberg has spent $300 million and received about 4,700 votes thus far.
$64,000+ per vote.
He’s going to tank in SC and on Super Tuesday and be irrelevant.
Dems are heading to a brokered convention and they’ll spin it as Hillary is the savior of the party. Look for her and the Obamas to cut a deal. Hillary will one term it and Michelle will be the VP.
I still believe he’s Hillary’s stalking horse, he’s doing the heavy lifting for her.
Yes. He’s going to keep the field unclear and voters confused. If Bernie is under 20% of the total delegate count and nobody else has more than 30% it’ll be a brokered convention. Hillary still controls the DNC and the superdelegates. She can swoop in and be the ‘party savior’ with the MSM stories already written. “She won the popular vote last time with 65 million votes. She can beat Trump again, etc.”
Who is going to object?
Not the fake media! They live for windfall gobs of cash every election cycle to run countless election ads.
The question remains, what is his platform and why does he want to eject the Man who has improved everyone’s life?
He is spending BILLIONS, and I for one see that money put to better use instead of over saturation of social media, TV,and radio waves
The next person in which becomes POTUS needs to seriously investigate Bloomberg’s campaign. Not because I am against Bloomberg but because there is too much lassiez-faire with his campaign finances going out too quickly. Which by the way, I hope bankrupts him and puts him in the poor house.
Because Trump is going to win the general election, and I am voting for him then.
I admire Bernie’s relative honesty to the other Demonrats running and am going to reward that by voting for him the primary. And I will also throw a few bucks his way so I get on his mailing list. It will cost him more money to send me a bunch of crap in the mail than my donation.
If he decides to actually fight the Big Screw this time around instead of taking a payoff, I might chip in a few bucks more to help.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.