Midterm elections are right around the corner, just less than five months away now, and the American people are going to head out to the polls and triumphantly elect new members of the US House of Representatives and a significant portion of the United States Senate. Voters will decide based on a wide range of issues which candidate best suits their needs and which candidate will best represent them in Congress. Overall, a large portion of the nation will vote, and we’ll get to see the miracle of democracy in action.
Ha, sike. Funny, isn’t it?
On election day 2014 about 62 million voters, or around 36% of the electorate, will decide who will make the nation’s laws for the next two years, or six for some senators (or 36 for some Kentucky Senators). Overall if the 2014 elections look anything like the 2010 elections (let’s truly hope they don’t), the youth vote will be several percent smaller, turnout will be significantly lower, and the average American won’t vote. Going into the full-swing election season opinion polls show 66% of Americans or more want new members of Congress, 68% see Republicans as out of touch, 73% are in favor of a minimum wage increase, 59% think money should be distributed more evenly, and Democrats lead on Health Care, Energy, the Environment, Minimum Wage, Immigration, and tie on the economy by most polls.
Yet, on November 4th, 2014, it’s increasingly likely that not only will we most certainly elect a Republican speaker of the House, but also a Republican senate majority leader. How exactly does this happen?
It’s fairly simple: money. The Koch brothers alone plan to spend $300 million in the 2014 midterms (the entire Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee won’t even spend that much). Their spending will run ads in every senate race from Kentucky to Georgia to North Carolina as they attempt to convince voters that their pathetic excuse for advertising is a reason not to vote for a specific candidate. And to make it worse, it’s not just them. Overall, several billion will likely be spent on this elections, and the wealthy on both sides of the aisle will account for most of it. One rich democratic environmentalist has pledged to spend $100 million in 2014 for candidates supporting legislation surrounding climate change and the environment. Seriously?
I know how absolutely obvious this is at this point, there’s more than enough articles covering the immense spending of outside groups in these races, but it’s beyond ridiculous to me that we ACTUALLY allow this to happen. A minority of the voters this fall will, by influence of an incredibly small pool of donors, elect the US Congress that will likely do, you heard it, NOTHING.
I was inspired by the wonderful stories this morning of the Koch brothers filing to create another SuperPac after meetings with wealthy donors. It will likely spend another $15 million in 2014.
God Bless America… Maybe tomorrow I’ll put some effort into an article on Right to Work laws or something.