Can you point me to the political contest in the history of the world where institutions stood on the sidelines and simply let the candidates speak for themselves? You can't, because it's never happened. This 'fair contest' has never and would never happen and frankly, shouldn't happen,
Public Funded with heavy regulations essentially keep corporate institutes from impacting the elections. It's done in many countries around the world. I'm surprised you don't know this.
You can probably never make anything truly fair, if you want to take some arbitrary philosophical highground, but there are many countries where consensus would be that the election would be a more fair contest than it is in the United States. It's not common for actors, and businessmen, and other famous individuals to be able to insert themself into the top elite of famous politicians. America has a long history with this.
I don't for a second believe that Hillary Clinton, had she not been the first lady, she would most likely not have become a Senator, nor a Presidential nominee. She has latched on her fame of being the first lady. And that's not an insult, because I recognize that this name branding is such a massive deal in the States (and in many other countries). But it's still depressing. Because you wonder who is sitting out there, who might be a better choice, but who is opted out because they are not famous or good at branding themselves.
Obama himself was a perfect example of someone nobody really knew who the Democratic party, in less than 4 years after he gave that historic speech in 2004, had become massively famous. Almost like you're not voting for a politician, but a character, where their religious belief, their spouses, everything in their past and everything else is held up as even more important than their beliefs and policies. This is total shallow and superficial reality that worships the character, not the platform the candidate is running on.
I'm not going to buy into this "oh, PP is just as bad as the NRA" because they got involved in the Democratic Primary on the side that Sanders fans didn't like. Some organizations are working toward laudable goals, some aren't.
Even if we suddenly have publicly funded elections, who PP endorsed would still be a big deal and it should be and if Sanders fans don't like that, they can spend a century working on women's health issues so they have as much respect as PP does in the community.
I never said PP is as bad as the NRA. If you took that away from my post then you didn't grasp the argument I was getting at. You're latching onto the individuals, I am arguing on the broad systemic practice.
It's irrelevant what the organizations is working against because it's an eye of the beholder situation. For some people NRA are the freaking the best. For some people, they'll vote the way AIPAC blows.
The point is that if you give lenience to corporate entities to change how the wind blows, you're making it less about the issues of the politicians, and turning it into a senseless popularity contest where the most famous and recognizable people end up in office. It makes people dumber, and allows them to not insert themself into issues, but just makes them want to vote for whoever they like is voting for. And then you end up with the likes of Donald Trump, Arnold and Hillary Clinton - Uber famous people who are using their fame to get mass exposure, and play that to their advantage.
Corporations should stay the fuck out of it.
I'm sorry but we don't live in a vaccuum, when Planned Parenthood is fighting for it's life and the rights of millions, and Bernie would've been all for their endorsement. To call them corrupt for not backing him was childish at the least. A healthcare organization panders to people? What? Then what about the nurses PAC for bernie?
Bernie is a part of the problem too. And he would be a hypocrite for the PP endorsement. Corporations should not try and impact the election or sway voters with their own agenda. PP doing good is irrelevant, and there are voters who have completely different optics on many corporations who also argue that they'll vote for whoever their favorite corp supports. AIPAC is a good example of this. And if you really sit down and inform yourself on how fucking evil these assholes are, you'd think twice before jumping on this badwagon that this is all just a vacuum.
At a certain point voters carry a responsibility in instigating this behavior. These massive systemic problems like mass incarcerations, privatized prisons, unlawful and genocidal occupations, massive gun violence, obscene tuition fees, terrible social networks for a first world countries, are almost uniquely extreme in America partially or primarily due to circumstances allowed by self centered corporations allowing their influence to poison career politicians who forget about serving their country before themselves.
America is absolutely extreme and the manner of which corporations enact their influence is blatantly transparent and grotesque. It happens in other countries to, but what is at stake in American elections pours into other countries. TPP being a excellent example of this fuckery.
You're losing sight of the argument if you think Planned Parenthoods good intentions give them a free pass. That's not how it works, and it's not how you can accurately judge these things from where you're standing on a selection basis. For some people NRA are the best and most wonderful people in the world. So this entire discussion about what corporations do good or bad, is useless. Government regulation on corporation is not some allocate system where you can choose and pick who the rules are to be enforced to.
Hillary Supporters get it completely warped up wrong when they conflate the condemnation of lobbying influence and systemic outside pandering with disliking the work of a organization on a Individual level. That's not what it is about. I absolutely agree that PP is a very brave organization and they do a lot of good. But you cannot pass regulations and fair legislation on how you personally feel. So what goes for PP goes for NRA too. And here we are- Another day, with another corporation stifling the will of the people by enacting their influence in congress.
