Campaign finance

Ok I think it has become common to laud Bernie Sanders as the champion of campaign finance reform. This is true insofar as he has been yelling “Citizens United” and “billionaires” a lot recently, but the idea that Bernie is the savior and the Democrats want to promote the evil superPACs is blatantly absurd.

The instant the Citizens United v. FEC ruling came down, Democrats were instantly outraged and vowed to fix it. The problem is that it is no longer a legislative issue.

This is because Congress already tried to fix things with the McCain-Feingold Act of 2002 which was explicitly designed to decrease the role of soft money and prevent corporate sponsored campaign ads from appearing close to a primary or election (no that’s not redundant, primaries and elections are different things).

But then the “conservative non-profit group” (read: right-wing propaganda factory) known as Citizens United didn’t think this was fair. They believed their money was speech and managed to convince the supreme court that parts of McCain-Feingold were against the first amendment. In particular, they thought it was unfair that they weren’t allowed to air an ad called Hillary: The Movie within 30 days of the 2008 Democratic Primaries. This was of course the same nonsense slander the GOP has been perpetrating against Secretary Clinton since she entered the national conversation in 1992. Let’s back up a second. Citizens United wanted to attack Hillary Rodham Clinton and now Bernie Sanders is bludgeoning Hillary over the head with it. With the court case that was all about the right to ruthlessly attack her. Hillary was THE INTENDED VICTIM of the Citizens United decision.

Oh look it’s a white guy victim blaming. How very new and different.

Voting and more

It has come to my attention that some people think that voting on principle is enough to show a good congressional record. That is the opposite of the case, and here’s why (very briefly):

The role of Congress is to create laws, ostensibly to improve the country. The only way Congress can affect the country is through legislation.

Therefore if you are in Congress and believe something would make the country better, you write legislation to that affect and try to have it passed. Or someone else writes it and you cosponsor it. And then you fight to pass it. This does not mean you just come in and vote. That’s not enough. You have to help proponents of the bill or resolution accumulate enough votes to get it passed (this is called “whipping votes”). If you really believe in something, there is no excuse for not doing this. Now why isn’t voting enough? Well it’s because if you’re on the losing side, your vote basically didn’t count. Yeah you can show your credentials and your beliefs, but on a real level, only the votes on the winning side mattered. Either the legislation passes or it doesn’t. How many votes it got or whose votes they were make NO DIFFERENCE to the people the legislation affects.

 

Twitter Harassment Gave Me Hope

Recently I was subjected to some verbal abuse on twitter. It stung a little, but I’m a pretty secure person and random trolls don’t really get to me with personal attacks. However, I was pissed, and I believe that people should be held accountable for their actions, so I reported him to twitter and asked my followers to do the same. The outpouring of support I received in less than a day (at the time of writing, that tweet is 15 hours old) was incredibly heartening. It built me up far more than that small, cruel person could ever tear me down. And it made me hopeful. Yes the original exchange shows there are still ignorant and mean people in the world, the support I received shows how far we’ve come. I was attacked in a homophobic way and received kind words and support from a huge diversity of people. That’s amazing. The fact that I as a Gay person can surround myself with supportive people, including supportive straight people, is an incredible testament to the progress we’ve made. Not that long ago such a thing would be completely unthinkable. This is not to say that homophobia is not alive and well in the world, it certainly is; but that I can find such a broad network of support is incredible. Thank you for being good people.

One final thought: I received not a single tweet defending what was said to me and the person who said it. Not one.

UPDATE: Trump troll posted meme against Bernie and Hillary. Or Bernie troll against Hillary. I don’t know. Blocked. Seemed like general spam so sticking with saying there were no defensive tweets.

Fixed: Trump’s Statement

Trump had some things to say when his campaign manager was arrested. It seemed a little off to me so I fixed it. Original video here.

I don’t discard people [except for being famous for saying “YOU’RE FIRED”]. I stay with people [who agree with me] that’s why I stay with this country [huh?]. That’s why I stay with a lot of [white] people that are treated unfairly [feel their privilege slipping away as society starts to call them on privilege, sexism, racism, homophobia, etc.] that’s one of the reasons I’m the frontrunner by a lot [most of my wins have been pluralities and I might not get enough delegates to get the nomination outright. It’s also why I’m running far behind Hillary in terms of total number of votes I’ve accrued, net favorability and (stupid pointless meaningless) national head-to-head polling]