Just Wondering

The Citizens United decision made it possible (some say probable; some say inevitable) for somebody like Karl Rove to push and pull all the levers, moving massive amounts of secret money around the election to manipulate the vote and get a result that was anything but what "the average American voter" wanted to have happen.

Some will now say Obama's win proved that was a false assumption.  I'm not so sure - it has to play out over a few more cycles before we know the full effect.  Hopefully, of course, we can get our shit together enough to change the law and push back against the tides of Plutocracy.  But for now, I have to stop and ask, "Hey, Secret Donors, you dumped a boatload of cash into this thing and you got bupkis - now what?"

Conventional wisdom has Karl Rove being slow-roasted over an open flame by his very rich and powerful clients who really really really hate to lose, but I'm not convinced we're anywhere close to being out of those particular woods.  Not yet anyway.

But last - I'd really like to ask this of all those good folks, mostly in all those deep red precincts who go out and vote in all good faith: You pay hard-earned dollars for energy and food and clothing and everything you need to live your lives - and there're Corporateers who're in charge of those companies you spend all those dollars with - is it right for them to charge you for the money they spend on what amounts to a scheme of legalized bribery?  Do you think you should pay (eg) $3.85 for a gallon of gas so ExxonMobil can take even a few pennies of that to spend on getting some yahoo from Kansas elected to the US Senate where he'll be sure to vote in favor of keeping the Big Oil Subsidies in place?  Do you really think that's a good system?  Really?

You guys are always complaining (and rightly so in some ways) that your government is taking taxes from you with one hand and using the money to buy a club so the other hand can beat you over the head with it.  What if it's Monsanto doing that?  What if it's GE?  Or Wal-Mart?  Or United Airlines?

I should say now that I'm not talking about how The Government used to be the enemy, but now the enemy is The Corporateer.  There are no real enemies in any of this.  There are certainly some people who behave like dastardly villains - I'll give ya that, but the enemy is not a person or even an organizational entity at all.  The enemy is, always has been, and always will be Too Much Power In Too Few Hands.

So Turd Blossom may or may not lose his head over all of this - he played the game and it remains to be seen if he'll pay the price.  I'd venture a casual guess and say that his career as Master Puppeteer is over now, but who knows?  I am pretty sure about a couple of things: one is that there's a giant hole in the GOP machinery right now, and the other is that power vacuums don't stay unfilled for long.