Okay, so it’ll be a tad more than 2,000 words – I just renewed my “Poetic License”.
The graphics are from the weekend edition of a well-researched article in “The New York Times” titled “The Families Funding the 2016 Presidential Election”.
They are overwhelmingly white, rich, older and male, in a nation that is being remade by the young, by women, and by black and brown voters. Across a sprawling country, they reside in an archipelago of wealth….
Now they are deploying their vast wealth in the political arena, providing almost half of all the seed money raised to support Democratic and Republican presidential candidates. Just 158 families, along with companies they own or control, contributed $176 million in the first phase of the campaign….
But regardless of [the] industry, the families investing the most in presidential politics overwhelmingly lean right, contributing tens of millions of dollars to support Republican candidates who have pledged to pare regulations; cut taxes on income, capital gains and inheritances; and shrink entitlement programs.
The online article opens with a compelling, dramatic graphic that as you scroll down automatically zooms into the tippy top of the pile. Not sure how they did it, because it’s not a GIF or flash, but I was immediately impressed!
And to enjoy the full impact, you really should view it online from the link above. The entire article is well-worth the read, but here is their "Cliffs Notes" version as a 2,000 word essay.
Oh, and … Thanks, Citizens United!
15 Responses to “Do Pictures Have Power? If True, Here’s a 2,000 Word Essay”
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Excellent way to illustrate how nonrepresentative their voices are–thanks Nameless!
I fear I must disagree with the descriptions of any of them as "self made." Maybe one or two, but no one is self made in finance. The money to start out has to come from comewhere. I'll bet they think they are self made though! incidentally I suspect all those in insurance are in health insurance. Property and casualty, even life insurance are pretty transparent and people don't make fortunes in them.
Yup–even telephone lines for much of the country were subsidized by the federal government so they did not do it alone.
Joanne posted on Care2:
http://www.care2.com/news/member/101612212/3917100
Yeah, maybe I should’ve addressed the broader issue – but I still think the graphics pack a wallop of a story!
But my mea culpa is damn easy, thanks to Sen. Elizabeth Warren:
I luvs, Luvs, LUVS me some Sen. Warren!
And financial traders, etc., depending on transactions being processed use the world wide web AKA internet, developed with federal tax dollars, too…
Warren did indeed explain it so any dolt couldn't fail to understand except by choice
Amen, brother and sister!
Yes, this arrticle has some great graphics to get it point across. Thank you for posting, Nameless (and thanks for cross-posting and pointing it out, Joanne and JL), but the great Elizabeth Warren doesn't need graphics. Her words pack a wallop story 🙂
It is pretty scary that 158 families have that much power, is it not? If we want to remain a democracy, we need to revamp our election system and have all elections publicly financed.
I agree that public financing of elections is the best solution.
Those wealthy families don't support a party, they invest in one and they want to see a return on their investment soon. Politics has become a Wall Street game, just like everything else, and they invest in the Republicans most because with them the return on investment is definitely the highest. And the handful of Democrats they donate to? Follow the money and I'm sure these families can be pretty sure of their returns with these candidates too.
Great article! Goes to show how the rich and their money influences politics.
Thanks, Nameless and Joanne for the post/article.
Isn't that the sad truth. Representative democracy at its absolute worst. This does not follow with "one person, one vote" which is the basis of our political system and if SCOTUS could see and understand this graphic, they'd know just how wrong the decision in Citizen's United was because this is 158 rich people united and everyone else left out in the cold.
Great essay! I still have faith in the people of our country. The rich tried to buy the last election and their boy romney lost. I hope they are wasting their money again.
That is a perfect way to illustrate the point of how there is a certain amount of people that control who and how many people run the election process in the US! It's preposterous that only THAT MANY PEOPLE have their hands on the button! That shows how perverted the election of our country's government has become!