Making Cents of 2016 Campaign Slush Funds

The Federal Elections Commission, FEC, Presidential 2012 Report results: 129,085,403 total votes cast. Obama: 65,915,796 (51.06%) Romney: 60,933,500 (47.20%)  Others: 2,236,107 (1.73%) Voting Age: 226,465,619 (57% Voted) Total U.S. Population: 317,000,000 (100%)

As anyone can see, the ballot numbers cast are small, the vote margins are slim and a candidate's chance to win are none if voters do not get out and vote, much less even take time to request absentee ballots to mail back by election day. Dauntingly, the staggering campaign funding to prod out these U.S. electorate to vote is literally a billionaire's game as both major parties will raise and spend a historical record busting $1 billion each for the 2016 Presidential election. Now divide that measly number of 129,085,403 actual voters into $2 billion! It works out to a whopping cost per capita vote of $15,490. 

Blame it on the Koch brothers! The billionaire Neo-Con archvillians are the Democrat nemesis extraordinares who have been extensively blamed in the mainstream media headlines which continue on with episodic storytelling. So, it offers up to the casual T.V. viewers or Newspaper readers a never-ending continuity to the big, bad 'bogeyman' syndrome about ultra-rich 'tea party conservatives' controlling the agenda narratives in all of the elections. It all sounds very plausible, but is that scenario really possible? Or, maybe not?

Another billionaire 'bogeyman' is Democrat Tom Steyer, a former Wall Street hedge fund manager and avid environmentalist. The environmentalists envisioned Steyer as their 'knight in shining armour' to realign their party platform planks to champion their issues. Then, Democrats have hailed him as their new power broker with a $500 million war chest to rival the Koch brothers as Steyer arrived on the scene vowing $100 million for the 2014 fall elections. He would match $50 million of his own money to $50 million from donors to run 'hard-edge' campaign of attack ads and make Climate a 'wedge issue' to divide voters. As of last month, according to Politico, his NextGen Climate action committee had raised all of $1.2 million.

To the DNC, Democrat National Committee, and Tom Steyer's great surprise was that his bold campaign strategy of attacking anti-environmental candidates was deeply, politically flawed. At first look, it appeared extremely ambitious, the idea to get those anti-climate change rascals voted out of office and establish strong 'climate change' planks in the Democrat platform. On second look, it became horribly obvious that by eliminating those rascals Steyer would throw some key Democrat senators out of office that had purposely distanced themselves away from Obama green fuel iniatives in order to win independent leaning voters in their coal, oil and gas producing states.

This 'climate caped-crusader' very well could single-handedly cost the Democrats their Senate seats to shift the majority over to Republicans; so the DNC strategists preemptively wiped out the NextGen operations right off their electoral map plans. So it goes to prove that money isn't everything in political influence pedalling; it helps to implement a well thought out campaign that weighs out all the consequences to its actions. Tom Steyer and the Democrat party in their zeal and exuberance to perjoratively attack the Republican values proved out an important lesson: "Stupid is as Stupid does." And what's its message to voters?  

Don't believe all of those campaign attack ads and nasty rhetoric to get your votes; instead vote on what really matters to you, not what is sold in 10 second sound bites to you by special interest Activists, well-financed Washington K Street Lobbyists and monied Billionaires. ...Try Thinking for Yourself for a Change! ...and that is a Change that you can really believe in!

Vote in the 2014 Mid-Term Elections!