Corruption on a scale we haven't seen in WH for Centuries

[*TheLeonardLeap*]

(06-07-2018, 08:56 PM)hollodero Wrote: It really appears Trump pressured Qatar into buying a Kushner skyscraper. That's uniqueish. If true of course, which I can only assume.


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As for money in politics, isn't a blue vote slightly less devastating than a red vote in that regard. One party at least admits it needs reforms. The other one blocks them. (At least that's what the legend says in my lands.)

Ehhh... I don't know, probably not? They're pretty much all terrible.

I don't have any hard numbers to back it up, but at least the last four Presidents we have had, two have been Republican, and two have been Democrat. The two Republicans were already rich when they came into office. The two Democrats were not. All four (well three, plus Trump blatantly using his office for $) are rich coming out of office.

Democrats have actually massively outspent Republicans over the last 3 elections.




Interesting/disgusting facts:
In 1996, Bill Clinton outspent Bob Dole... $115.4m to $66.8m
In 2000, George W Bush outspent Al Gore... $186.5m to $120.3m
In 2004, George W Bush outspent John Kerry... $355.0m to $332.7m
In 2008, Barack Obama outspent John McCain... $760.4m to $239.7m
In 2012, Barack Obama outspent Mitt Romney... $737.1m to $483.1m
In 2016, Hillary Clinton outspent Donald Trump... $639.6m to $302.5m

Those numbers I don't believe include all of the outside spending.

To give you an idea if you were wondering about inflation, $1m in 1996 is worth $1.606m today. There's just rampant and out of control spending in elections now, and that money comes from somewhere. Heck, this last election is actually the first one since 1976 to have the person who spent less win (Jimmy Carter won spending $33.4m to Gerald Ford's $35.8m).

That money comes from somewhere, and the corporations/millionaires/billionaires don't give it without any self interest, and you can't win unless you are one, or you have a LOT of them supporting you.

Our campaign finance system is just wrecked, and the unintended financial incentives our Presidents get is troublesome.