Why Citizens United must be repealed.

It should be obvious to every American citizen, that since our Supreme court saw fit to allow every billionaire, Oligarch, and criminal enterprise to pour money into our political system, our country has  been coming apart at the seams. That is the purpose of Citizens United. It is to destroy our democracy. This is the nature of greed.  Greed hates seeing others prosper. Greed feels that anything that another possesses, has been taken from them. And greed, when presented the opportunity that it has been given by the John Roberts' cabal in the Supreme Court, will make this country a dictatorship. Even worse, it will be a dictatorship under the new Soviet Union.

What do I mean by that? It is obvious that Vladimir Putin is one of the greediest men on the planet. He is not only greedy for money(he is now the richest man on earth, without earning one honest ruble.), he also has an insatiable lust for power. He is rapidly  hacking his way across Europe, subverting the political systems of the former members of the Soviet Union. He is  doing the same to members of NATO, including the United States. And all the while, we are just sitting back, thinking that Robert Mueller is going to save us from this. Robert Mueller is not going to do anything to Trump, even if he finds out that Trump has conspired with Putin to subvert our electoral system. The only thing he can do, is report to congress what he has on Trump. I bet Trump is really frightened by that. Do you think this congress will impeach Trump? To the man, they have voted with Trump on every issue, no matter how badly it hurts the average citizen. Do you know why? It all goes back to Citizens United.

Citizens United allows any amount of money to be given by anyone without having to reveal who the donor is. A lot of this dark money is finding it's way into accounts and real estate deals that these congressmen can access at a later date. Why do you think so many of them are bailing out of congress right now. They know they are going to be taken care of, and they think if they are no longer in congress, they will not be charged with obstruction of justice for their attempts to disrupt Mueller's investigation. It all goes back to the greed factor. Everyone has their price, and Putin knows he can pay that price. Particularly since,a lot of  it is money stolen from the coffers of Russia, and  laundered in the West. Foreign money is illegal if given to a campaign,even if it is not laundered money. Do you think under those circumstances, that money coming from Putin or other dictators could be traced? If you do not know who is giving it, how do you know if it is an American or not. There is so much dirty laundry money coming into this country, that many are selling out. But the most serious sell out is this. Many Americans are burying their heads in the sand, because we find it unpleasant to think about these things. It is a fact that Trump has conspired with Putin to subvert our election process and gain control of this Country. It is a fact that many members of congress are a part of this conspiracy. It is a fact that the election was stolen in Wisconsin and Michigan when Republican polling workers discarded enough absentee ballots after the polls were closed to give the electoral vote to Trump. This is why the Russians had hacked into  the voting machines in certain states without changing the vote.  What they wanted to know was in what states would the election be close enough, that they could swing it by dumping votes from blue districts.  In those voting districts, they could discard enough democratic absentee ballots to swing the electoral college vote. They really didn't have to hack the machines though. The polls taken the day before the election would have given them all the info they needed. In all fifty states, there were only three states where the candidate who was predicted to win the state did not win that state. Those states were Michigan , Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania. Quite a coincidence, huh? In those states, Clinton was one or two points up, and she lost by one or two points. They only had to swing 70,000 votes total to win the election. Also, there were two states where the polls were tied the day before. They were Florida and North Carolina. Trump won those states by two points. That is what happened in the two thousand presidential election where Bush won over Gore. There were thousands of absentee ballots dumped in Palm Beach county Florida, more than enough to give the election to Bush. It is impossible to know how many elections have been won like this.

Since no one seems concerned about this, what is to prevent it from happening again in November? I think it is time get interested. I have never lived under a dictatorship, but I have studied enough history to know, that very few countries ever come back from it, once they have allowed freedom to slip away. I also know that it can be very unpleasant living under the boot of a tyrant. We Americans are very spoiled by the cushy democracy that our forefathers created for us, and other patriots have died for over the years. If we are so spoiled that we cannot be concerned about what is happening right before our eyes, then there will probably be a lot more patriots having to die for our freedom, with no guarantee that it can be won back. While there are many examples of this for us to learn from, the most glaring example occurred not to long ago.

In 1932, Adolph Hitler ran against Paul von Hindenberg for the presidency of  Germany. Hitler lost with 36% of the popular vote, while von Hindenburg had about 56% of the vote. Most of Hitler's followers had a fascist tendency, a leaning that I feel  the approximate 36% who follow Trump also have. I'm not saying they are all fascist. Many are just followers and bullies, and some are Evangelical  southerners who feel their ancestors got a raw deal in the Civil War. Also, their are some who think if a man shows a lot of swagger, he must be a good leader. Anyway,You would think that with a loss by 20% of the vote, you would not have heard any more from Herr Hitler. However, he did have this group behind him who had a tendency toward violence. These were  the people who formed the Brown shirts, and later the SS and the Gestapo. Hitler used them to intimidate and frighten the opposition. They also gained control over the press. Hitler used this minority group to gain control over the country, and everyone knows where it went from there. Look around. Can you see the tendencies toward this in our country. If you can't, then go back to sleep. If you can, then you should start thinking about what you can do about it. The logical start would be to repeal Citizens United. The easiest way would be if we had enough liberal members of the Supreme Court who would vote to repeal it. Unfortunately we don't have that, and we won't have that for a long time, particularly, if Trump becomes president for life. Realistically, it would probably be twenty years before liberals could take over the court, even with Trump out of the picture.

So, how do we rid ourselves of this scourge on our society? The only way that it can be done, would be with an amendment to our Constitution. I think our forefathers would approve, since there is no way they could have conceived that a Supreme court would be so depraved as to deliberately destroy our democracy. I'm sure if they could have imagined it, they would have felt that the citizenry would have revolted, and would cause great harm to the perpetrators of this atrocity. However, it is not easy to amend the Constitution, which in the long run, might be a good thing. To create an amendment to the constitution, it requires that two thirds of the House and Senate vote for it. This cannot happen right now, even with a blue wave in the midterm. There are only eight Republican Senators up for reelection, and they are in deep red states. I wonder how that happened? Also the Democrats have twenty seats up for reelection. Even though they are in fairly blue states, it is possible they could lose a seat or two. So, a Constitutional convention will not happen.

The only other way to get it repealed is for two thirds of the states to vote for a constitutional convention. They could then vote to overturn Citizens United. As you can see, this would be a monumental task.   It would require that we have a tremendous outpouring of citizen's indignation at what is happening in our country.No matter what, we must at least regain the House, and hopefully the Senate. We cannot be confident that it will be easy, even with the blatant destruction of our government. You can never be sure the election will not be rigged. We must do everything we can to prevent this. Let your election board know that you will demand an audit of the absentee ballots, to make sure they are all counted in a close race. Absentee ballots in larger voting districts, such as big cities, are usually stored in a warehouse, until election day. In more rural areas, they are stored at the polling place. These votes are usually not counted until after the votes at the polling places are counted. I find that unusual, Wouldn't it make sense to count them the day before the election, when polling workers are not busy. For some reason, they prefer to count them in the dead of night, when no one is around.The people doing the counting can disqualify any absentee ballot they deem damaged, incomplete, or for about any reason they choose. They may not be counted at all, if it is determined that there would not be enough absentee votes to change the election in that district.  If it is a close vote, they would be counted after the polls close, usually without polling observers present. It is amazing that this little detail can still change an election. Let's fix this America.

 The first thing we must do is get out as many voters as possible. Get good honest candidates to take on these Trumpies. Expose them for what they are We know that they have many of the same characteristics as those who propelled Hitler to power.The purpose of  Citizens United to repeal Citizens United is to take on the big money that is Taking over our government. We must fight fire with fire, or in this case, money with money. The Koch Brothers have pledged a half billion dollars in ads to beat the democrats. While I know we  probably could not raise nearly that much, if we place our ads strategically, and take on those that we have a chance to beat, we could make a big difference. One thing we have are our brothers and sisters at all the Indivisible organizations, of whom I'm a proud member. Also, the beautiful young people who have stood up against gun violence, and the ME TOO organization, and all the other groups who have stood up against racism, fascism, Trumpism, and all the other ism's that are dragging our nation down. It is our intention to help fund these groups as we organize a grass roots movement that will take our country back from the gates of Hell.

There is one thing that we must do though. We must stand together under one banner, to wage this fight. So many times in the past, we have gone into important elections, with all the different factions supporting their issues, and ignoring the big picture.  The Big Picture,  is joining together to remove the fascist element from our Congress, our Senate, and our State Houses. When we do that, we can make progress on the issues that delay our Forefather's vision of this nation maturing to the point that all people are equal in the eyes of all it's citizens.  While an inability to rise to this promise of equality has been humankind's condition for as long as we have a history of our behavior,  America is probably the worlds best hope for achieving these ideals. We must not let this Democracy die under the boot of a tyrant. Let us stand together to save it. To help support our uphill battle to repeal citizens united, you can donate at  https://secure.actblue.com/donate/citizens-united-to-repeal-citizens-united-1