Is good money bad too?

Published April 10, 2014

by Gary Pearce, Talking About Politics, April 9, 2014.

This is a story about how even “good” money – that is, money spent for candidates and causes I like – can be bad.

 

It’s a story about how outside donors and independent campaigns, not candidates and office-holders, are setting the political agenda. You can walk, and run, but money talks.

 

Most every poll you see in North Carolina today shows that education is the number one issue. And the Republican legislature’s biggest vulnerability – as is Thom Tillis’s – is its war against teachers and public schools.

 

But what issue dominates the pro-Democratic TV ads? It’s not education. It’s the environment, clean air and water, and the coal ash spill.

 

Now, those are great issues. Great Democratic issues. But why is TV filled with ads about the environment, and not education?

 

Because the big donors – big national and in-state donors – care more about environmental issues than education issues.

 

This is what the United States Supreme Court in effect believes should happen: People with money should be able to decide the agenda and define the issues. The Court says that is fundamental in our Constitution.

 

You can decide for yourself whether that’s good or bad. But how many ads can you afford?

 http://www.talkingaboutpolitics.com

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April 10, 2014 at 7:47 pm
Norm Kellly says:

Often times it's possible to tell the political leanings of a writer. Take this writer for instance.

Does it matter that the Republican legislature budgeted more money for education than the previous DEMONCRAT legislature? Nope. Was the DemocRAT policy/policies declared a war on ANYTHING? Nope. Wonder why? I'm guessing it's because lib voters don't like war, so having lib media types declaring everything a war, they hope to sway the hapless lib voters.

The environment, clean air, water, the coal ash spill are described as good Demon issues. Like the Demons KNOW, in their heartless chests, that Republicans WANT and will WORK TOWARD destroying the environment, causing dirty drinking water cuz Republicans and conservatives DON'T have families or grandchildren. But the facts get in the way of even these good Demon causes. But good lib media types, people like Gary, want you to forget, ignore, skip the FACT that the majority of time that Duke's coal ash ponds were ignored, it was the Environmetalist, Loving, Caring, DEMONS who CONTROLLED Raleigh. It wasn't the Republicans who had the power to do something about the coal ash ponds. It was the Demons who controlled EVERYTHING about the state government who gave Duke a pass on this pollution threat. So, one with the ability to think is left wondering about FACTS and claims. The facts show that the Demon party really IS NOT that concerned about the environment. Libs just want people to THINK libs care about the environment. And when something negative happens in the environment, Libs want to be able to POINT the FINGER somewhere else. Not DO anything about the environmental disaster, but be able to pass the buck to someone else so they can maintain their facade of being environmentalists. And there should be NO doubt that this is just a facade. Look it up: facade = false front/face.

But this brings us back to the lib point Gary brings up. What EXACTLY is the lib plan for education? So far, they have expressed NO PLAN. So far the only thing libs have planned is SPEND MORE MONEY, TAX THE RICH MORE. That's NOT A PLAN, and it's been the only arrow in the lib quiver for about 50 years, probably more. Do libs have ANY new ideas? Or have the libs become the party of NO? Based on their plans & proposals, and what they object to, the libs are ONLY the party of No. Without a plan of your own, you can't claim that anything will be different if you get in power/control. If the demons retake Raleigh, will they cut education spending again? How will this be different from the Republican 'war' on education? The first difference is that at least the Republicans increased education spending. Some war! Seems to me that if you declare war on something, it's with the intent of destroying that something, not increasing it.

So, Gary, libs, put your education plan forward. Before the election, try telling us exactly what you would do to 'improve' education. Will your plan involve, in any way, parental choice, charter schools, private school vouchers, or anything that will give Parents control instead of Politicians? Prior to the election, can you tell us ANY of your plans if you (god forbid!) retake control of Raleigh? Can you give us SOME positive direction that you have planned for the state? Can you show us how you WON'T borrow money from the feds again, with no plan to repay the loan? Can you show us how your economic plans will BENEFIT the state instead of driving business OUT of the state? If the libs in NC are like the libs in other states, then the answer to my questions is obviously NO. They can't show us their plan cuz it doesn't exist. They can't show us that their 'plan' won't put us in a worse economic environment. They can't show us that the same 'plans' they have are the ones already being implemented by their lib counterparts around the country that are ruining states across the country. Lib states = failing, declining, debt-ridden. Conservative states = improving economy, improving employment, reduced debt, less regulation on businesses and individuals. But, unlike libs, my mind is open to your ideas and plans. If you put them forth, we'll be able to look at them and NOT declare them a WAR on anything. We'll be able to debate your ideas. We'll be able to see the difference between the current direction of the state and the negative direction you 'plan' to take us. If you dare put your plan forward, we can make an EDUCATED decision on whether we want your plan or we'd rather give the Republicans a chance to actually move us forward. But since the Demon party hasn't had a plan in years, I'm not going to hold my breath for one to come out now. They will just go on being the party of NO. And they will become more irrelevant. I hope we always have a few outspoken libs around so we can all know what we need to protect ourselves from.

April 11, 2014 at 8:19 am
Richard Bunce says:

More speech better than government regulated speech. Money does not vote, TV ads do not vote, never met a voter who said they voted for the candidate that ran the most TV ads. The voters decide what issues are important and elect members of Congress and Legislature. Anyone who is actually watching TV political ads is not trying very hard...