Clinton Strikes Back Against Citizens United And Dark Money

(Photo of Hillary Clinton is from ABC News.)

Some progressive Bernie Sanders supporters have tried to claim that Hillary Clinton supports the super-PAC and dark money campaigning (while their candidate doesn't). That is a LIE. Hillary Clinton has always opposed the Citizens United decision by the Supreme Court -- the decision that allowed unlimited spending (including spending of secret donations) by the rich and corporate interests to subvert our electoral system. In fact, the advertisement by Citizens United that was the impetus for that Supreme Court decision was an ad against Hillary Clinton.

And yesterday, Clinton made her stand against the monetary subverting of our political system perfectly clear -- by releasing her plan to fight it. Here is how Sarah Jones describes this at Politicsususa.com:

Citizens United has been going after Clintons since 1992 and now they’re going to feel the heat. 

Hillary Clinton has a plan to go after the nefarious dark money that’s trying to buy elections and it goes beyond a Constitutional amendment. It’s fair to say that of anyone talking about Citizens United, no one has been on the receiving end of their nefarious lies like 2016 Democratic Presidential candidate and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Citizens United started by a conservative group that was lobbying against Hillary Clinton, so Clinton starts off saying it’s personal. Knowing that, her statement takes on a new edge. 

“We have to end the flood of secret, unaccountable money that is distorting our elections, corrupting our political system, and drowning out the voices of too many everyday Americans. Our democracy should be about expanding the franchise, not charging an entrance fee,” Clinton said in a campaign statement. “It starts with overturning the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision, and continues with structural reform to our campaign finance system so there’s real sunshine and increased participation.” 

Details of Clinton’s plan were released by her campaign Tuesday and include:

· Overturning Citizens United by appointing Supreme Court Justices who value the right to vote over the right of billionaires to buy elections, and by pushing for a Constitutional amendment to allow common sense rules to protect against undue influence from special interests and restore the role of average voters in elections.

· Ending Secret, Unaccountable Money in Politics by pushing for legislation to require public disclosure of significant political spending, and, until Congress acts, promoting SEC rulemaking requiring publicly traded companies to disclose all political spending to their shareholders and signing an Executive Order requiring federal government contractors to fully disclose all political spending.

· Amplifying the Voices of Everyday Americans by establishing a small donor matching system for presidential and congressional candidates that will incentivize small donors to participate in elections and candidates to spend more time engaging a broad, representative cross-section of constituents.

While Clinton would need Congress to pass legislation to accomplish the small-donor matching funds and a Constitutional amendment to overturn Citizens United, she could, as President, sign an executive order on her first day of office requiring federal contractors to disclose their spending as well as promoting rules for the SEC that would require publicly traded companies to disclose all political spending to their shareholders.

And these ideas, which have been pushed by campaign finance reform groups, would be immediately effective. Corporations would be branded with pushing lies, and that isn’t great for business. 

Campaign finance reform advocates at Every Voice are pressuring candidates to address dark money in politics and they called Clinton’s plan “strong” and “bold”. “With the release of this strong, bold plan, Hillary Clinton recognizes that in order to create government of, by, and for the people—not just the wealthy campaign funders—it’s crucial to amplify the voices of regular voters,” said David Donnelly, president and CEO of Every Voice. 

Pundits are already suggesting that Clinton is being pushed left on this issue by Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT), which has possibly been the case on other issues but on this one, that opinion ignores history. Citizens United has been going after Clintons since 1992 when they published “Slick Willie” — an attack on former President Bill Clinton. 

“We’ve been working consistently since 1992 on all things Clinton,” David Bossie, longtime president of Citizens United said according to Business Insider. 

The entire Citizens United debacle came about because in 2007, Citizens United was trying to pass off a hit job titled “Hillary: The Movie” as a “documentary”. They’re doing it again with a new movie “Hillary: The Sequel”, which if media’s willing complicity with the conservative conspiracy-oriented book already pushed is any indication, will be treated as factual when first released — thereby continuing the media’s aiding and abetting of the conservative plan to tar Hillary Clinton with constant unfounded accusations. 

Later, when the truth comes out, the public has moved on and what is left is the accumulated, lingering stench of vague scandal. (See the Republicans’ ongoing efforts to turn the Benghazi tragedy into a scandal, in spite of facts.)

The media should be asking why Citizens United is spending so much money to spread lies. After all, if they think their ideas are so great for the people, by all means share them. Get their candidates elected on their actual platform. But of course, they can’t do that because their platform equals theft from the people in order to enrich the top 2% to steal from, pollute, poison, and sometimes even kill the average citizen in service of profit. (I wish that were hyperbole, but it’s not.)

In a normal world, decades of vitriolic hatred and slobbering trolling would cause normal people to recoil, and ask why the heck Citizens United hates the Clintons so much. 

Citizens United has made a powerful enemy in Hillary Clinton.