The Silenced Majority: Stories of Uprisings, Occupations, Resistance, and Hope by Amy Goodman, Denis Moynihan
Authors: Amy Goodman, Denis Moynihan
Tags: United States, General, Social Science, History, Sociology, Political Science, Politics, Media Studies, 21st Century, Current Affairs, Social History, Public Policy
Ads: Link
expressing solidarity with the workers of Wisconsin.
The demands for workers’ rights were powerful and sustained. The momentum surged toward a demand to recall Walker, along with a slew of his Republican allies in the Wisconsin Senate. Then laws tempered the movement’s power. The Wisconsin recall statute required that an elected official be in office for one year before a recall. Likewise, a loophole in the law allowed the target of the recall to raise unlimited individual donations, starting when the recall petitions are filed. Thus, Walker’s campaign started raising funds in November 2011. His opponent, Tom Barrett, the mayor of Milwaukee, was limited to individual donations of up to $10,000, and had less than one month to campaign after winning the Democratic Party primary May 8.
Coupled with the impact of the U.S. Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision, the Wisconsin loophole set the stage for grossly lopsided fundraising between Walker and Barrett, and an election battle that was the most expensive in Wisconsin’s history. According to the most recent state campaign-finance filings, Walker’s campaign raised over $30.5 million, more than seven times Barrett’s reported $3.9 million. After adding in super PAC spending, estimates put the recall-election spending at more than $63.5 million.
According to Forbes magazine, fourteen billionaires made contributions to Walker, only one of whom lives in Wisconsin. Among the thirteen out-of-state billionaires was Christy Walton, the widow of John T. Walton, son of Walmart founder Sam Walton.
Nobel Prize–winning economist Joe Stiglitz writes about the Walton family in his new book, The Price of Inequality: How Today’s Divided Society Endangers Our Future . He notes, “The six heirs to the Walmart empire command wealth of $69.7 billion, which is equivalent to the wealth of the entire bottom 30 percent of U.S. society.” That is almost 95 million people. Stiglitz told me: “We’ve moved from a democracy, which is supposed to be based on one person, one vote, to something much more akin to one dollar, one vote. When you have that kind of democracy, it’s not going to address the real needs of the 99 percent.”
The voters of Wisconsin did return control of the state senate to the Democratic Party. The new majority will have the power to block the type of controversial legislation that made Walker famous. Meanwhile, three states over in Montana, the Democratic state attorney general, Steve Bullock, won his party’s nomination for governor to run for the seat held by term-limited Democrat Brian Schweitzer. Bullock, as attorney general, has taken on Citizens United by defending the state’s 100-year-old Corrupt Practices Act, which prohibits the type of campaign donations allowed under Citizens United. The case is now before the U.S. Supreme Court.
Wisconsin’s recall is over, but the fight for democracy starts with one person, one vote, not one percent, one vote.
May 2, 2012
The Real Mad Men: Following the Money Behind TV Political Ads
May Day, Murdoch, and the murder of Milly Dowler. What do they have to do with the 2012 U.S. general election? This year’s election will undoubtedly be the most expensive in U.S. history, with some projections topping $5 billion. Not only has the amount of spending increased, but its nature has as well, following the 2010 U.S. Supreme Court’s Citizens United ruling, which allows unlimited spending by corporations, unions, and so-called super PACs, all under the banner of “free speech.” This campaign season will unfold amidst a resurgent Occupy Wall Street movement launched globally on May 1, the same day the British Parliament released a report on Rupert Murdoch’s media empire charging that he is “not a fit person to exercise the stewardship of a major international company.” Now more than ever, people should heed the advice of the famous Watergate source, Deep Throat: “Follow the money.”
Most money in our
The demands for workers’ rights were powerful and sustained. The momentum surged toward a demand to recall Walker, along with a slew of his Republican allies in the Wisconsin Senate. Then laws tempered the movement’s power. The Wisconsin recall statute required that an elected official be in office for one year before a recall. Likewise, a loophole in the law allowed the target of the recall to raise unlimited individual donations, starting when the recall petitions are filed. Thus, Walker’s campaign started raising funds in November 2011. His opponent, Tom Barrett, the mayor of Milwaukee, was limited to individual donations of up to $10,000, and had less than one month to campaign after winning the Democratic Party primary May 8.
Coupled with the impact of the U.S. Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision, the Wisconsin loophole set the stage for grossly lopsided fundraising between Walker and Barrett, and an election battle that was the most expensive in Wisconsin’s history. According to the most recent state campaign-finance filings, Walker’s campaign raised over $30.5 million, more than seven times Barrett’s reported $3.9 million. After adding in super PAC spending, estimates put the recall-election spending at more than $63.5 million.
According to Forbes magazine, fourteen billionaires made contributions to Walker, only one of whom lives in Wisconsin. Among the thirteen out-of-state billionaires was Christy Walton, the widow of John T. Walton, son of Walmart founder Sam Walton.
Nobel Prize–winning economist Joe Stiglitz writes about the Walton family in his new book, The Price of Inequality: How Today’s Divided Society Endangers Our Future . He notes, “The six heirs to the Walmart empire command wealth of $69.7 billion, which is equivalent to the wealth of the entire bottom 30 percent of U.S. society.” That is almost 95 million people. Stiglitz told me: “We’ve moved from a democracy, which is supposed to be based on one person, one vote, to something much more akin to one dollar, one vote. When you have that kind of democracy, it’s not going to address the real needs of the 99 percent.”
The voters of Wisconsin did return control of the state senate to the Democratic Party. The new majority will have the power to block the type of controversial legislation that made Walker famous. Meanwhile, three states over in Montana, the Democratic state attorney general, Steve Bullock, won his party’s nomination for governor to run for the seat held by term-limited Democrat Brian Schweitzer. Bullock, as attorney general, has taken on Citizens United by defending the state’s 100-year-old Corrupt Practices Act, which prohibits the type of campaign donations allowed under Citizens United. The case is now before the U.S. Supreme Court.
Wisconsin’s recall is over, but the fight for democracy starts with one person, one vote, not one percent, one vote.
May 2, 2012
The Real Mad Men: Following the Money Behind TV Political Ads
May Day, Murdoch, and the murder of Milly Dowler. What do they have to do with the 2012 U.S. general election? This year’s election will undoubtedly be the most expensive in U.S. history, with some projections topping $5 billion. Not only has the amount of spending increased, but its nature has as well, following the 2010 U.S. Supreme Court’s Citizens United ruling, which allows unlimited spending by corporations, unions, and so-called super PACs, all under the banner of “free speech.” This campaign season will unfold amidst a resurgent Occupy Wall Street movement launched globally on May 1, the same day the British Parliament released a report on Rupert Murdoch’s media empire charging that he is “not a fit person to exercise the stewardship of a major international company.” Now more than ever, people should heed the advice of the famous Watergate source, Deep Throat: “Follow the money.”
Most money in our
Similar Books
