Lee Zurik and Manuel Torres continuing story in the Times Picayune concerning elected officials and campaign contributions given them from business tells a story we are all familar with. That is special interest groups have the money that influences special favors from elected officials at the detriment of the average citizen.
Americans for Prosperity's is a PAC that is mainly funded by the billionaire Koch brothers(out of towners) who are spending millions of dollars in ads in Louisiana to defeat Senator Mary Landrieu in the coming November elections. The conservative Koch brothers have the financial resources to have it both ways, they can give direct to a politician via campaign contributions or form a PAC and run ads to try and defeat a certain candidate.
Both are two sides of the same coin called influence buying. Why do business spend their money that way? Because it works for them. Why does it work for them? Because the average voter has yet to demand and hold our elected officials or business groups or individuals responsible for their actions. That is why elected officials and the money people are so outwardly brazen in their actions. They know the average voters knows what is going on and that they can still get reelected and still spend millions of dollars in ads and manipulate the voter.
Just think how many employees could be insured or be paid a decent wage if all that campaign money was re directed instead of being spent on elected officials and ads from wealthy PAC donors. One can easily make the statement that too many elected officials and too many business people believe in corrupting government and corrupting the vote. It is a sad story of the inability to compete by the wealthy people and business just because they have the ability to influence.
Nothing will change for the people as long as they tolerate a corruptive system and ads that they allow to influence their vote.
This commentary written by John Lucia
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