Post-Soviet Russia

Kind of how we live now. Know your oligarchs, people.They are the people buying your elections.

Update: Check out that "remarkable rate of return"

Big money has dominated politics for decades, but the most important recent trend is the growth of third-party groups that typically fund ads on behalf of candidates, often with incomplete disclosure on where the funding comes from. Such SuperPACs and other similar groups have thrived thanks to recent Supreme Court decisions allowing vast amounts of money from corporations and wealthy donors to flow to campaigns. The Center for Responsive Politics estimates that such groups spent close to $600 million this cycle.

Evidence is mounting that billionaire donors basically control the entire political system, with one recent study arguing that “America’s claims to being a democratic society are seriously threatened.”

Unlearning what we already knew

Stephen Breyer:

“Even if I were to accept Citizens United, this Court’s legal conclusion should not bar the Montana Su­preme Court’s finding, made on the record before it, that independent expenditures by corporations did in fact lead to corruption or the appearance of corruption in Montana,” Breyer wrote. “Given the history and political landscape in Montana, that court concluded that the State had a compelling interest in limiting independent expenditures by corporations.”

The Montana case specifically refutes the  Citizens United  assertion that unchecked corporate spending does not lead to corruption by providing a real life example of precisely that having happened.  But the court chose to unlearn that lesson.