Bribes Literal and Legal

I don't live in a battleground state, but Friday I received three unattributed flyers and another only identified as Republican by the micro-print postal stamp code: all were negative ads. One was against the incumbent Republican State Senator, possibly from the Independence Party; the Republican ad was against the Democratic challenger. The only TV ad I saw (I watch TV rarely) was also unlabeled, in lurid colors, against the Democratic Congressional challenger of the tea-flavored incumbent Congressman.

The Obama campaign has solicited my wife and I at least five times a day. Each. I have given small amounts several times and used Obama's phone tool; my wife has given more. Democratic Senatorial and Congressional candidates from Washington and Montana to New Mexico and Massachusetts have solicited me, plus at least five progressive Democratic organizations, and the DCCC, DGA and DSCC. That's only the political groups!

Occasionally, I've given really small amounts ($3.00) to Democratic groups or candidates, but it finally occurred to me: the whole campaign is an enormous business, a sector subset of Entertainment. I've encouraged them--I and all the other millions giving to both parties. But we don't get the kind of returns from the mega-bucks that billionaires "donate."

Neverthelss, I'm investing in the continued viability of Social Security, Medicare, and a universal right to health insurance: my investment will pay me back in kind if Obama wins. So will the aid programs for people in need, like fully funding Food Stamps and expanding grants to education. None of this makes me money; some save money for everyone. All maintain social stability.

Why does someone like Sheldon Adelson pledge to spend "whatever it takes," more than $100 million, to defeat Obama? What does he get out of it, if Romney wins? Adelson is under investigation and may be charged a felony: bribing Chinese officials with $600,000 to $1million, to set up gambling casinos in Macao, China's "autonomous" ex-Portuguese colony. He's likely violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act to build the largest gambling complex in the world. He could go to jail, or, he could have a new President, Romney, name an Attorney General who would find a way to dismiss the charges.

How much is that worth to a billionaire worth $25 billion, a good part of it from Macao?

If Obama wins, this should be a whole new source of revenue. An invigorated DOJ could search for other sources of income: Wall Street bankers, private fund speculators like Bain Capital: people gambling with other people's money for their own gain.

Maybe that's the kind of money politics we really need! Take Crime Out of the Suites--To Pay Our Debts. Expropriate ill-gotten wealth and fund services for people they squeezed it from.

That would make it politically possible to reverse the apparently inexorable rise of our contemporary Roman Senators: the super-rich who increasingly monopolize the wealth we all produce.