For every $1,000 donated to the Democratic Party, a whopping 25 cents goes to the actual candidate — and the vast majority of money ends up in the pockets of consultants.
“It is just a way of the rich to buy elections,” said Scott Edwards, the treasurer for Bernie Sanders. “As someone who works in politics, I’m appalled at what’s happening.”
On April 14, the Democratic Party’s campaign fundraising totals for the first quarter of 2017 will be reported. A quarter billion dollars is expected to be raised. But how much of that money will actually go to presidential candidate Bernie Sanders and other progressive candidates?
Most donations, according to a new poll, are going to the hands of consultants — not voters.
“What does Bernie Sanders get for every $1,000? 25 cents,” said Chris Suprun, who is running for Texas state representative in the 22nd district. “The people funding campaigns don’t go around looking for an opportunity to spend that money on politics.”
“I’m supporting Bernie Sanders because he’s running a grass-roots campaign and he has a lot of support from people and small donors,” said Suprun, a former Ron Paul presidential campaign staffer.
With the Republican Party in complete disarray, much of the corporate money that previously went to Republican candidates is now going to fund Democratic candidates.
In March, the Democratic Party raised $45 million. That included over $11 million in donations of over $200 from the fossil fuel industry.
The Republican Party raised $9.5 million in March, with only $2.2 million coming from corporate PACs.
Many of the millionaires funding both parties don’t pay income tax at all. The Center for Responsive Politics notes that only 1% of income comes from the richest 400 taxpayers. Another 15% comes from people who make $500,000 to $2 million per year. The richest, who make over $2 million, only make up 2% of the income.
“They are spending money like it is their own, they’re not going to their own pocket, they are supporting progressive candidates and politicians that favor their interest — which is a corporate interest,” said Suprun.
On Wednesday, the presidential campaigns of Democratic candidates Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton announced that they have collected over one-third of all campaign contributions from small donors.
“There has been a flood of massive, historic fundraising by both of our campaigns in this campaign cycle,” said Sanders on Wednesday. “What we are seeing is people from all races, all income groups coming together to say that we have got to stand up and fight back.”
“These are millions of people who want to become involved in politics — and our job is to do everything we can to reach out to these people and make it easier for them to come in and make a donation,” said Chuck Rocha, a former senior adviser to President Barack Obama.
Rocha said it’s “a good sign” that small donations make up such a large percentage of campaign contributions.
“A lot of times with the super PACs, you had one billionaire who got an extra million dollars to pay for his friends to go to Congress — and that is where a lot of the money is going,” said Suprun.
“I’m actually for spending people’s money on campaigns,” said Rocha.
“Corporations have a right to spend their money in politics,” said Suprun. “The issue is when corporations and the rich are putting in unlimited sums of money to dole it out among candidates, you don’t have an equal playing field.”
“It will only get worse as the super PACs get involved and there’s a lot more money being put into our campaign, and eventually our presidential campaign, and what this is really trying to do is buy that position.”
“Right now, I feel like we are going in the right direction,” said Edwards, the Bernie Sanders treasurer. “I feel that we are moving away from the old model and we are doing what people want to see.”
To contact the author, email alexk@infowars.com, call 1-888-593-0012, or tweet “@JoeBeckjr” with the date of your comments.
Alex Jones has been one of the few consistent truth seekers on the net and has been saying what others only whisper to each other in bars and closed meetings. Alex Jones asks the hard questions, he tells you who is behind the curtain and what’s really going on. Please listen and donate to Infowars.
In the second portion of this special two-part interview, Paul Craig Roberts talks about the decline of American democracy, the globalist agenda, and the implications of the coming World War III on America’s fragile economic recovery.
By Paul Craig Roberts
If you are tempted to ask what’s the use of voting, then you have been manipulated by the corporate media. The answer to your question is: voting is not the answer. Voting might get you Barack Obama or Donald Trump, but it doesn’t change a thing. Voting changes nothing; a vote is for a person, not for a policy.
In terms of issues, there is nothing you can vote for that will make any difference. The elections and the policies they are supposed to implement are run by the corporations. Corporate power runs the government. Corporate power runs the so-called political parties.
The fact that there are any elections, much less democratic elections, shows that we are no longer living in a democracy. We are living in an Oligarchy, a rule by the corporations and the very wealthy.
In order to obtain the truth about the world and Washington, you don’t vote for candidates; you don’t vote to bring about policies; you vote for representatives. If the representatives and the policies are controlled by Wall Street and the military/security complex, then your vote is for tyranny, theft and war. When Washington has so much power over your life, it doesn’t matter whether Republicans or Democrats control the government. You are enslaved by government, whether Republicans or Democrats are in charge.
You ask why Americans are not demanding democracy when democracy has done so much good for the other countries of the world.
You are demanding democracy, but your vote is meaningless. Your vote is for Wall Street and the military/security complex. For instance, on March 1st the President and Congress, with the help of the military/security complex, passed a National Defense Authorization Act that will increase the number of soldiers to 800,000 and create a domestic army of mercenaries. As soon as you accept military rule over you, your democratic rights are gone.
The government is controlled by a group of about a dozen people, so-called “principals.” They make all the decisions, and they hire contractors to implement those decisions. You ask how so much money can be made by selling bombs and mercenaries? It’s a very simple answer. America is not self-sufficient. We are an economy of war. We are an economy of mercenaries and the killing of people. It takes far fewer American soldiers to kill someone than to make something. Consequently, this so-called democracy is a farce. A hundred thousand American soldiers could not defeat Hezbollah in Lebanon and Syria and Iraq if the US needed to, because neither the US nor Israel have an army capable of defeating Hezbollah.
If you want to see where all your money goes, you need to look at the military/security complex. Most of the money that goes into Wall Street and defense is going into a vast military/security complex that makes the military/security budget look as if it came from a small country in the Middle East.
I call it the “national security state.” This is a government within the government that has usurped the power that belongs to Congress. Congress can’t tell it what to do. It has its own intelligence, diplomacy and foreign policy that controls the Pentagon and the Department of State. The military/security complex is an
