George Will Downplays Corporations Buying Elections by Comparing it to Product Advertising
George Will downplayed the impact of corporations buying our elections by comparing the amount of money they're spending on political ads to what they spend advertising their products. I have to say I agree with Otherday at Daily Kos who after reading Will's column in the Washington Post where he said the same thing, Will just made the case for public funding of our elections.
Maybe he ate some sour stewed prunes, but George Will was off his game, again. His latest essay was meant to be the usual, over-the-top Obama-bashing exercise that swirved off course into making wonderful arguments why we should have publicly financed elections. George Will's argument for public campaign financing.
For example, Mr. Will tells us how inexpensive it would be to pay for such a national, public election program. To pay for a two-year cycle for all elections is about $4.2 billion, and he shows us how doable that is:
That is about what Americans spend in one year on yogurt but less than they spend on candy in two Halloween seasons.
George Will is exactly right: we can easily afford that!
Here's Will's hackery on This Week pretending that voters don't care about the issue, when actually they do. It's just the beltway Villagers who are desperately trying to convince everyone this doesn't matter:
GEORGE WILL: Two points about money. First of all, in this gusher of money we may spend this year in the two year cycle $4.2 billion, something like that. That's less than half of what Proctor & Gamble is going to spend advertising its products in one year. It is approximately what Americans will spend on yogurt this year. This is a rich country and the fact that we spend so little trying to influence the selection of those who will make and administer the laws is the amazing thing. Second, surely we're learning as we repeatedly do every two years the declining marginal utility of the last political dollar. There's just so much you can do in throwing stuff on television.
AMANPOUR: Well, explain that. Do these ads work? First of all, the issue of transparency is a big issue and a legitimate issue transparency.
WILL: It is not a big issue for the voters of this country that when losing political movements such as the Democratic Party at this moment want to talk about process. No one cares about process.
George, I tell you what, if it doesn't matter and it's just fine to allow corporations to buy our politicians, lets make them all walk around like NASCAR drivers with all of their sponsors' logos on their jackets so we know who bought them.
g.will chants the "free market" and ayn rand capitalism.... cry almost every week. what he forgets to say is that corporations and some in government don't want a real free market. they prefer crony capitalism. that's why he supports endless money into campaigns. g.will hides behind his libertarian idealism for everything. he's a bore.
If the progress of history, specifically the development of the free-market system, continues, new economic theories will hopefully emerge. One is that capitalism suppresses small business and democracy, and a new economic system is needed. One that spreads the wealth more fairly.
This could be a major upheaval if it happens and it won't be pretty. However, the current system will lead to only destruction and it must go.
The time of Adam Smith is ending.
I don't believe in God. Teach a man to be a good citizen and you have solved the problem of life.
-Andrew Carnegie
I think you mean something else.
Technically, I can't think of a word to describe what we have now, other than oligarchy.
I don't use plutocracy because you can have power over people without it having to be through the dollar, for example churches.
Capitalism and corporations can be as small as a Mom and Pop operation where they're the senior officer, and their hound dawg is the accountant.
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
should not necessarily be blamed for the prostitution of his work or the cliched "invisible hand" quotation. Few who quote Smith have actually read any of his work, let alone understand it.
Here's what he actually had to say about what we know today as "Corporations".
"The directors of such companies ... being the managers rather of other people's money rather than of their own, it cannot well be expected that they should watch over it with the same anxious vigilance with which [they would] watch over their own,... "Negligence and profusion, therefore, must always prevail, more or less, in the management of the affairs of such a company."
Negligence and Profusion as understood by Smith, are the corruption and greed we see today.
There has never been and there will never be. It is a canard argument.
This is capitalism, labeling it as "crony capitalism" is an easy scapegoat to avoid discussing the systemic issues with this specific "ism." (Not that any other "isms" are better either)
CTHULHU 2012 "Why vote for a lesser evil?"
Not quite yet, but the conservatives are working on it.
The Free Market doesn't mean open competition by rather "freeing" up the market of government regulations, that lead directly to the implosion of our economy in 2008.
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
The man is a blatant idiot!
he's gotta big vocabulary and wears a toupee (a french word btw) which means he's a very important person whose opinion matters and who's always right. If you wore a toupee and had an extensive vocabulary like Will's you'd always be right too. By simply questioning, letting alone referring to as an idiot, a toupee wearing conservative with a big vocabulary like Will is akin to heresy!
I don't own a toupee yet, but it's a question of time...
Minoxidil might as well be piss in a bottle
Like Budweiser.
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
His younger brother is our local Teabircher/ Cafeteria Constitutionalist editorial writer. If Gen. Franks had ever met Bosley it would have given Doug Feith a lot of breathing room.
My understanding of Fascism is that the elections are controlled/influenced by corporations, and the government is controlled/influenced by corporations. If that is correct, this is fascism.
The free market system should include free elections that aren't engineered by corporations. Without free elections, there isn't a free government, there isn't a free people, there isn't a free press, there isn't a free market system. Nothing is free.
Yup thats how Fascism starts, however it often takes all the anger it generates and focuses it on a set of people. Then things get really ugly.
parallels the birth of Nazi Germany? Research it...it's scary.
Only this time muslums, non-Christians and scary brown people will be the scapegoats.
“The greatest evildoers are those who don’t remember because they have never given thought to the matter, and, without remembrance, nothing can hold them back,”
yep!
If I were a psychopath, I would join the republican party, and get in on the gravy train taking the Teabircher morons to the cleaners.
May I copy this and quote it? It's really good and tight.
Plutocracy / fascism is exactly what is coming our way courtesy of the Reich wing . And as "yas" said their so called free market mantra has nothing to do with the individual or with competition but of Corporations being free of any governing regulations , restrictions and oversight , that is the freedom they are talking about , we saw the results of that deregulation insanity two years ago and we are living with the results still today . But the crazy Reich wing F'ers still insist on it ! For them greed and Corporate / Wall Street profit come before anything and anyone else , to hell with country , they are International now , their markets , their labor force , all over seas , not here in the US .Adds up doesn't it ? Is it any wonder that the Republicans since all but destroying this country have only done their best to stop and prevent any recovery ?
"The poor have sometimes objected to being governed badly; the rich have always objected to being governed at all."
lying sack of shit. In other words, the ends justify the means? Utter self serving I Me Mine bullshit. Is Rove in your earbud, shit for brains?
me-oww!
...makes watching Ken Burns' Baseball almost impossible. Whenever I see his mug, I want to put my foot through the screen.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=46vk716HMtA
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
.
me-oww!
George Will, Shit personified
miss_kitty — 10/26/10 3:45pm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=psoCuK2kgiA
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
I DEMAND an apology for talking about George Will that way!
Shit is a useful and necessary thing! We must excrete and anyway, shit if used properly can be a healthful and natural fertilizer. On the other hand, George Will is a vast nightmare of a toxic mind-spill pretending to be a decent, thoughful human being. Please think before you type next time! On behalf of shit everywhre I AM OUTRAGED!!!
I apolgise to fecal matter everywhere, inside and outside of colons everywhere, large and small...
me-oww!
Is Rove in your earbud, shit for brains?
Put an end to Karl Rove now.
Put an end to FOX Propaganda.
Put an end to escalating Republican fascism.
Put an end to the republicans now, before it becomes impossible to do.
Vote for Democrats now.
"Government by organized money is just as dangerous as Government by organized mob"
-= Franklin Delano Roosevelt =-
nazi sympathizer.He's anti-american, pro-corporate, and believes he's all that..
When the shit really hits the fan he won't be found...he thinks he and his can helicopter to a safe place, cept there isn't gonna be such a place, george.
Will is a dinosaur. He is a rich, white guy who thinks he owns me. Wrong, always wrong.
Maybe he ate some sour stewed prunes, but George Will was off his game, again.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SIZU_NZRfjA
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
SCOTUS declared corporations to be "persons" and funding political figures and issues to be tantamount to "free speech." Why then don't corporations have voting rights? If we're going to accept the "money is free speech" nonsense, shouldn't we also allow them to vote? If not, WHY not?
That is on the docket for THIS year, after the elections when the Rethugs take over the Congress. The Supremes will get a really big tip.
“The greatest evildoers are those who don’t remember because they have never given thought to the matter, and, without remembrance, nothing can hold them back,”
Last time I bought and paid for my yogurt, my yogurt expected nothing in return from me (at least I heard no demands).
If George thinks corporations are getting nothing in return for the money they "give" politicians, why then do they do it? And why then do they want no one to know they are doing it?
And WTF kinda argument is it to say the corporations are worth more than what they are paying politicians? Talk about a non sequitur.
is always right.
Ratatoupee?
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
unless you're a corrupt asshole like Will who thinks you should be able to buy and sell politicians and other people depending on your whim.
I just think about what Palin would be saying if there was a bunch of foreign money going into Democratic campaigns. Can YOU imagine.
"They're palling around with North Korea, you betcha!"
NOBODY 2012
I wonder what George Will's take would be if you substituted the word unions for corporations.
and start sputtering and his toupee would explode.
“The greatest evildoers are those who don’t remember because they have never given thought to the matter, and, without remembrance, nothing can hold them back,”
public funding of elections in this country.
"Parachutes are allowed in checked or carry-on baggage, but may not be worn in flight."
---Southwest Airlines
Bought and Paid For. Good boy.
NOBODY 2012
make his name writing about Baseball for crissakes? ....
buddy ... your grandkids are going to be eaten alive by the sh!tstorm you are perpetuating with your worthless pathetic lying sack'o crap routine ... dont you even care about that? All that $$ wont save them ...
I'm Boycotting NewsCorp! Heres what not to buy: http://www.cjr.org/resources/index.php?c=news...
Most of the players would eat his lunch.
“The greatest evildoers are those who don’t remember because they have never given thought to the matter, and, without remembrance, nothing can hold them back,”
STFU Will , you fountain of bullshit . A pantyhose wearer for sure .
"The poor have sometimes objected to being governed badly; the rich have always objected to being governed at all."
What do you want from people who view human lives as products? Aren't we aware by now that our usefullness to corporate America is squarely summed up in our roles as either consumers or laborers (and every once in a while as voters)? Beyond that, our value as human beings is neglibible.
A view that is one of the defining characteristics of fascism.
- Pretzelogic in Philly, PA
And now for some feedback: Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!
Alan Grayson Americas worst politian.In his article he defends poor Daniel Webster (Taliban Dan).as being a devout Christian so wrongfully taken out of context. How dare Grayson- pointing out Websters hypocrasy-and how dare a progressive use an attack ad against a Republican-Its just not right! It's not fair!
Only Republicans can smear someone. Get out of our sandbox-you meanie- Alan Grayson!
George Will should understand better than most people the threat to our democratic form of gov't that large corporations present. He's become an empty shill of a man.
I'm involved with a lengthy discussion thread on Facebook about a Constitutional Amendment to deny rights to corporations. They have privileges, not rights. This is the way it used to be, and now they're undermining our Republic. A movement is growing. It's small for now, but C & L will be covering this in the next year.
Someday I will be able to drop a link to an essay that smashes "Overton's Window" and proposes the 28th Amendment. Trust me, this is coming.
"The antidote to bad speech is more speech." ~~J.S. Mill
How complicated could the proposed Amendment need to be:
"Corporations are NOT people for any reason or purpose under the laws of these United States."
There - done - simple.
- Pretzelogic in Philly, PA
And now for some feedback: Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!
Corporate size was mentioned and concerns about 1st Amendment freedoms were expressed.
"The antidote to bad speech is more speech." ~~J.S. Mill
No corporation - of ANY size - ought to be granted "personhood". And 1st Amendment freedoms are for... wait for it... people! There ya go - problem solved. (That's me - I'm a "helper").
- Pretzelogic in Philly, PA
And now for some feedback: Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!
Now we're working on the second part of the Amendment where we disconnect money from free speech. We don't agree with the SCOTUS that they are equivalent.
If anyone wants to get in on this discussion, contact me through FB: I'm Victor Tiffany.
"The antidote to bad speech is more speech." ~~J.S. Mill
for years. He always paints it as a free speech issue.
Will has also been a shill of a man.
"The antidote to bad speech is more speech." ~~J.S. Mill
always a shill of a man.
"The antidote to bad speech is more speech." ~~J.S. Mill
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