To the editor,
Buried deep in the nonsensical insults and scary sounding words conservatives use ("globalist," "socialist," "radical leftist,” "George Soros funded") you can sometimes find …
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To the editor,
Buried deep in the nonsensical insults and scary sounding words conservatives use ("globalist," "socialist," "radical leftist,” "George Soros funded") you can sometimes find a real actual message worth supporting.
"Dark money," that is money put into PACs anonymously for campaign donations to candidates from corporations (many times foreign entities) is a major problem in politics.
It is worth noting a bill was introduced in 2019 to address this exact issue, then again in 2021. HR1 or the "For the People Act" severely limited corporate spending, forced transparency, and put further regulations on campaign finance rules for candidates to ensure fair elections. "But what else was in the bill," you might rightly cry. Read it I say. It is true there was a great deal of other text in this bill, some worthy of criticism and some excellent policy that would indeed make things MUCH more fair for independent candidates. That aside after Republicans killed this bill a standalone bill was issued that solely focused on the regulation of so called dark money. It demanded the transparency of PAC money and outright banned the money from foreign interests in our politics.
The bill passed the House by slim margins (100% of Democrats supported; FEW Republicans supported). It passed the Senate by slim margins. Too slim unfortunately to pass the filibuster which allowed our very own Ron Johnson to filibuster the bill on the Senate floor.
So when I read about the "scary dark money that Democrats are taking," I remember the fact it was Republicans who killed the bill to remove it from our system.
It remains Republicans who refuse to remove it from our system as Democrats introduced yet another bill this year. The End Dark Money Act (H.R. 2498). Republicans at the moment are too focused on protecting Epstein's clients to work on any real legislation.
Much like the debt, these things only matter to conservatives when they can claim democrats are the ones who are the problem. Stop the nonsense. If you want change, then vote for the people working for the change.
Jacob Proue
Spring Valley
