The KBParty of plutocratic rule

Shouldn't America have at least one major party that isn't beholden to the corporate elite?
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The KBParty of plutocratic rule
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Shouldn’t America have at least one major party that isn’t beholden to the corporate elite?

Well look here – just such a party has popped up, raring to roar into the 2016 presidential race. Called the KBParty, it has the funding and political punch to bypass the establishment’s control of the election system. But don’t rush to sign-up: KB stands for Koch Brothers.

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Yes, Charlie and David – the multibillionaire, right-wing industrial barons who already own several congress critters, governors, think tanks, astroturf campaign machines, front groups, etc. – now have their very own, private political party. And it’s not beholden to the corporate elite, since it is the elite. The Koch boys have rallied roughly 300 like-minded opponents of democracy to their brotherhood of plutocrats, intent on purchasing a president and Congress that will impose their vision of corporate rule over America.

At a secretive retreat in January for KBParty funders, the 300 barons ponied up $900 million for their campaign. That’s nearly $200 million more than the combined expenditures of the Republican and Democratic parties in last year’s elections, and it’s way more than either of those parties will have for 2016.

This means that, in our nation of 350 million people, a cabal of only 300 of the wealthiest will have the wherewithal to narrow the choice of candidates presented to the rest of us, restrict the range of policy ideas that are proposed to voters, imbue the overall campaign with a negative tone, and – most important – shape the governing agenda of those who get elected.

The Supreme Court’s disastrous Citizens United edict created this mess. To help ban the corporate cash that’s clogging our elections and killing our people’s democratic rights, go to www.DemocracyIsForPeople.org.

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