Last night, January 12, 2012, Stephen Colbert declared he is forming an exploratory commission on running for president. He had done this before, in 2008. He ran for president in South Carolina and with the “Support” of Doritos made a big show of it. He did not have the money or support to get on the ballot. This time around he does.
For the better part of last year Mr. Colbert has organized publicly, a PAC (Political Action Committee), for the purpose of raising money for political adds. When legal issues arise with his employers at VIACOM, he used the system to turn his PAC into a super PAC with no affiliation to VIACOM. When he learned he could get large donations to that PAC without any disclosure at all he signed the document to allow that. Having seemingly unlimited money at his disposal and no obligation to disclose where it came from; Mr Colbert sought to influence the 2012 election cycle.
Last night in order to announce his candidacy he transferred that Super PAC over to friend and business partner Jon Stewart of the “Daily show.” Stewart is not allow to directly coordinate with Colbert, but as they pointed out on his show last night, Colbert couldn’t stop Stewart from watching his show to get ideas.
I know and you know, that this is a stunt. Stephen Colbert is a political comedian, not a politician. He is playing a character, a satire version of Bill O Riley. Mr. Colbert is trying to bring to light the broken system that is PACs. He had been doing so for months. These PACs have almost no regulation and the regulation they do have is full of loopholes.
They are the result of the Citizens United ruling by the supreme court saying that corporations have 1st amendment rights under the constitution and can donate unlimited money to these political groups. In other words money=Speech in politics. PAC’s are not allowed to directly coordinate with campaigns, but only as much as is legally necessary. They have already played a big part in the election so far and have flooded the political scene with negativity and attack ads. Since these groups don’t “Coordinate with campaigns” they may run whatever ad they wish without anyone being accountable for the PAC’s actions.
In essence you could run a campaign on the “moral high ground” and the Super PAC that supports (but does not work for) your campaign (directly) could run the most vile smear ads possible. You could not be blamed, because those people while supporting you, do not work for you (directly). They are just angry at whoever your opponent is on whatever issue the smeared him on.
This is not just a left or right issue, its all of politics. Obama will use this just as much as Romney or Gingrich or Mr. Colbert. It will become the defining part of our politics. They will be ruthless, unstoppable and unlimited. There will be no end to their number or their money. They have the ability to crush a candidate without his opponent even being involved (directly). Their abilities are only limited to the amount of money they can produce. Money which can be donated in any amount anonymously by people.
Corporations are people; people with a lot of money. That money is just lying around doing nothing, burning a hole in said persons pocket. They could donate that money to those PACs or Super PACs or 501c’s. No one would ever know who fueled the political hate machines. millions and billions of dollars donated, and unaccounted for.
This is what Stephen Colbert wants you to see, in his own ridiculous way. He is showing the American people the hippocracy of these PACs and how campaign finance needs to be reformed and corporate money doesn’t belong in politics. Citizens United has managed to further corrupt an already broken and corrupt system. To the point where the candidates who supported the ruling are now slamming the things that ruling allowed. I bet Newt Gingrich didn’t see that coming, neither will the next victim of Citizens United.
We as a people must stop this from completely destroying our political process. All politicians can now be bought and sold like brands. Their views swayed by whatever their buyers want. A country of the people, by the corporations, for corporate interests. God Bless the United States of Bank of America.
Speaking from the center 