Is the republican party self-destructing?
All through this election cycle for the general election we have seen resistance from the Republican elite toward the candidate that has drawn the most attention from the electorate. Keeping in mind that as a constitutional republic we have the right to elect whom we the people want to represent us. This is what the Founders intended because in any other form of government the leaders are chosen by the elite, not the people.
Even though this system has been in place for 240 years each party has managed to work up to the point where they make it look like the people are involved by allowing the people to vote for the candidates the Party elites want in office. I believe that this is what we saw in 2008 when Romney backed out of the race to let McCain take the lead. In 2012 Romney got the elites nod and the race was his to lose, which he did, but the people still had their ‘voice’. All candidates have people who finance their campaigns. This simply means that they are bought. Favors have to be given to those that fund the campaign. If you want to see what positions a candidate is going to take, I’m not talking campaign promises because they will say what they have to to get elected, look at who is funding them. Where is the candidate getting his support? Rubio has several billionaires that are funding him. With that said you have to look at what these ‘supporters’ support. It will make no difference what Rubio says in his campaign it will make a difference as to who is supporting him.
Rubio has talked no amnesty but in the same breath he talks illegals paying fines, back taxes and getting in line. He says nothing about deporting them. One of his backers is Sheldon Adelson a strong open borders billionaire. Rubio will say no amnesty but because his financier likes the open borders there will be nothing done to secure the border as we have seen nothing being done since the Reagan years.
Remember the Gang of 8 Bill? This was nothing more than amnesty hidden in legalize. A little background on Adelson tells you that he is a casino owner with casinos in Vegas and China. The ones in China are interesting. It appears that they are possibly being used for money laundering by Chinese organized crime: “A diminutive 82-year-old with a lumpy face and a puff of thinning red hair, Adelson is the 13th-richest man in the United States, worth more than $20 billion, according to Forbes. Though he made his initial fortune in Vegas, he joined the ranks of the superrich following his 2001 investment in Macau, a once run-down seaport an hour’s ferry ride from Hong Kong that in the last decade has overshadowed Vegas to become the world’s gambling capital. Adelson’s casinos in Macau, a special administrative region of China, provide the majority of the revenue for his company, Las Vegas Sands. But beneath Macau’s glitz lurk organized crime, corruption, and a shadow banking system that has allegedly laundered billions of dollars for China’s ruling elite.
In 2013, the chair of Nevada’s powerful Gaming Control Board told a federal commission that it was “common knowledge” that the lucrative VIP rooms in Macau casinos have “long been dominated by Asian organized crime.” That same year, a federal commission cited a study finding that more than $200 billion in “ill-gotten funds are channeled through Macau each year.”
Which raises the question: Is dirty money spent by corrupt Chinese officials at Macau casinos flowing into our elections, at least indirectly? “With Citizens United, there’s an awful lot of money sloshing around in our political process,” said Carolyn Bartholomew, vice chairman of the bipartisan US-China Economic and Security Review Commission, a congressional advisory body that produced a scathing report detailing Macau’s vulnerability to money laundering by such officials. “People have a right to know whose money that is, and that the proceeds being spent in the political process are not from illegal and illicit activities.”[1]
I’m not sure this is the best source for influence for American politics. I’m sure that there have been billions funneled into our elections over the years from sources of extremely questionable character, but we need to have a different form of influence. What is present today invites that type of activity in the ranks of our elected. John Adams stated: “Our constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.” This influence does not come from a ‘moral and religious’ people. It is the opposite and we are seeing the results in our government.
Rubio’s list of donors is impressive. At a fund raiser in Washington there were at least 70 people there that are not the $500 maximun donation donors: Around 70 of Rubio’s financial backers are listed on the event invitation — over half of whom, organizers say, signed on with the senator after last month’s Boulder debate. The fundraiser, which will draw lobbyists, bundlers, and several members of Congress, is expected to net around $200,000.
Monday’s fundraiser was initially going to be held at a Washington, D.C. townhouse, but organizers moved it to the Capitol Hill Club — where a large room has been rented out — after the RSVP list began to swell.
Among the names listed on the invitation, who are relatively new to Rubio’s fold, are Peter Davidson, a Verizon lobbyist; Christopher Chapel, a NextEra Energy lobbyist; Russ Thomasson, a former top staffer to Texas Sen. John Cornyn; and Mathew Lapinski, a lobbyist at Crossroads Strategies.
The invitation also lists a handful of House members, including Wisconsin Rep. Sean Duffy, Illinois Rep. Darin LaHood, Georgia Rep. Austin Scott, and Indiana Rep. Todd Rokita.[2]
Another influence into the Republican Party by a mega-donor is Jerry Perenchio. He was involved in McCain’s failed attempt for the presidency in 2008. Again, the things he supports is what McCain would have supported if elected. Unfortunately he was not a major supporter of things that benefit Americans. “Jerry Perenchio is the man who poured millions of dollars into fighting the California movement to teach schoolchildren English. Does John McCain share Perenchio’s zealous opposition to pro-English immersion initiatives? If he doesn’t, why does he have the nation’s leading opponent of pro-English immersion initiatives serving in the prestigious position of national campaign finance co-chair?
Perenchio aggressively bankrolled opposition to Prop. 227, which dismantled “bilingual education”–the oxymoronic program that holds foreign-language-speaking students hostage and forces them to maintain their native tongues instead of transitioning to English as quickly as possible–in 1998. He donated millions directly to the opponents and also donated millions of dollars in anti-227 “public service announcements” on Univision railing that “The dreams of millions of Hispanic families are being destroyed.” Despite Perenchio’s massive campaign to prop up language segregationism, the pro-English Prop. 227 won in a landslide:”[3]
Former Univision chairman A. Jerrold “Jerry” Perenchio is a long-time donor to Republican candidates and groups. He’s one of presidential candidate Carly Fiorina’s biggest supporters, giving more than $1.6 million to her super PAC and helping to host a fundraiser for her in September 2015 following the second Republican debate.[4]
This just scratches the surface of what influences American politics. Nothing that we have seen here supports the ideas of the Founding Fathers. In fact most oppose the ideas of the Founding Fathers. It was the principles that they established that made America great not what we see being forced on us today. James Madison stated: ‘We have staked the whole future of American civilization, not upon the power of government, far from it. We have staked the future of all of our political institutions upon the capacity of mankind for Self-government, upon the capacity of each and all of us to govern ourselves, to control ourselves, to sustain ourselves according to The Ten Commandments of God.’ We have strayed far from the moorings set down by the Founders. They wanted morality to influence government but today we have money that influences government. Samuel Adams stated: “The public cannot be too curious concerning the characters of public men.” The character of the people in seats of authority is questionable at best.
Bill Clinton was and probably still is a womanizer, many Senators and members of the House have been convicted of corruption in both parties, Obama is an obvious muslim that hates America and is doing all he can to bring America to a third world nation status.
The front runner of the Republican Party, Donald Trump, is being attacked from all sides by both the Party elites. Why? I think it is because he can’t be bought. He has no Super Pac behind him. He will have to pay favors back to no one. He won’t be forced to take a position. He’ll be free to clean government up, expose the massive corruption that is embedded in DC. It could mean the end of the gravy train for many people and they are fighting for their ‘livelihood’. Donald said he was building a new Republican Party. I believe that it will be better than what we have now by far. I think it is time to return to the principles our Founders gave us. It worked very well for them and they will work very well for us.
2016 Roger Anghis – All Rights Reserved
Footnotes:
1. Sheldon Adelson bets it All.
2. Rubio draws new backers to Capitol Hill fundraiser.
4. A. Jerrold Perenchio