By Duncan Smith (TNS)
Do Democrats really stand for anything anymore except power?
Don’t worry about answering that; it was a rhetorical question.
Of course, they don’t.
Everything they complain about in politics is only a problem if they aren’t winning elections.
Once they are — or, in Joe Biden’s and Kamala Harris’ case, once enough fraud has been committed to make it look like they’ve won — things Democrats used to hate they fully embrace.
Like so-called “dark money” to fund campaigns.
Once it benefitted Biden/Harris, no problem.
Though Dems have long criticized anonymous money in politics, this latest election cycle saw a wave of it flow into and fill up Democratic Party coffers.
According to an analysis by the Center for Responsive Politics for CNN, more than $320 million in “dark money” boosted Democrats in races for the White House and congressional seats, more than double what Republicans saw.
At the top of the list, the analysis showed, was Joe Biden. He took in nearly $132 million in such anonymous funding for his bid to unseat President Donald Trump. Trump, who is appealing vote counts showing a Biden win, received just $22 million in dark money.
Biden’s aides declined comment on the record, CNN said, but pointed to his letting reporters listen in on fundraising events as evidence of his support for transparency.
They also note that the former vice president, a supporter of public financing for federal candidates, has proposed sweeping changes to address the role of money in politics and curb the outsize influence of dark money while backing more small-donor, grassroots funding for candidates.
The analysis defined dark money as donations and other spending by nonprofits that don’t disclose sources, and money from limited liability corporations functioning as shell corporations.
With such funding, the mysterious sourcing of cash obscures the agenda of the donors. Dems have railed against it for years.
“This is a rotten system, but as long as it exists, both parties are going to use it,” said Fred Wertheimer, who runs a watchdog group Democracy 21, and according to the cable news network is part of a coalition of more than 170 groups urging the incoming president to tackle issues that include campaign finance transparency. “The test for us is: What are you prepared to do about the system?”
We can answer that: Nothing, as long as Democrats continue winning (by whatever means necessary).
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