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PRESIDENCY FOR SALE (IT'LL COST YA!)

1/12/2012

 
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_Presidency for Sale (Not Cheap!)
    After finishing 4th in Iowa and  5th  in New Hampshire, Newt Gingrich, lacking  money and organization, seemed dead in the water until saved by a sudden windfall—5 million dollars from a Las Vegas casino billionaire. Taking advantage of the Supreme Court decision that “money is speech,” Gingrich, who’d vowed never to “go negative,” promptly began vicious attacks on Mitt Romney, which raised his profile, although not much. But with a Las Vegas sugar daddy, his campaign stays alive.
    So now we have a presidential contender whose main lifeline is a Las Vegas billionaire. Assuming Gingrich (or anyone else with a sugar daddy) becomes president of the United States, what will the sugar daddy expect in return?  Would a gambling kingpin who understands percentages donate large amounts without expecting a healthy return?  Do you think any Las Vegas billionaire does not keep close accounts of every dollar he’s owed? What kind of pressures would he be able to exert on a U.S. president who owed him his victory? Would a President Gingrch be allowed to welsh, if he wanted to?
    The future of America hangs on the ruinous Supreme Court decision: Citizens United vs. Federal Election Commission, which turns political power into a commodity that Super Pacs can buy on the open market. Our highest court has other appalling decisions in its past, In 1857, Dred Scott, vs. Sandford seven of nine justices ruled that slaves or descendants of slaves were not protected by the U.S. constitution. In 2012, five justices voted for this abomination which threatens to destroy our country.
    Senator Bernie Sanders has begun one recourse, an amendment to the U.S. Constitution, a long and fraught process. Can it possibly be completed before some bought-and-paid-for puppet is installed in the U.S. Presidency and does permanent damage?  The only other hope is that a second Obama administration will be able to appoint one or more new justices who will quickly reverse this disaster, affirming that the U.S. belongs to all its citizens, not only the one tenth of one percent who are billionaires
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Martha
1/12/2012 01:21:04 pm

As always, I enjoy your connections (and intellect and passion). When I teach my students about the 1857 Dred Scott case, I always quote Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, Roger Taney, writing for the majority: black people, he wrote, were “beings of an inferior order” with “no rights which any white man was bound to respect.” I hope Obama has the opportunity to appoint several more justices to our Supreme Court.

Andrew Gescheidt
1/12/2012 01:52:07 pm

HI Stuart,
I continue to enjoy your writing. Yours is the only fee I've linked to my phone.
Cheers,
Andrew


Comments are closed.
    Picture

    Author (Yuma, AZ, 1944)

    Being 90 years in this world,  with great kids,  great grandkids, great wives (two, one at a time) and great memories, I wonder why some people seem to have stopped loving the U.S.A.? I will wonder in print right here. If you wonder too, or can provide some answers, please comment.
                                   Stuart Hodes

    Picture
           With my friend, Nero.
                   April, 2012.
        Photo by Ray Madrigal

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