Soros Starts the Anti-Super PAC Super PAC

If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em. So goes the logic of Jonathan Soros, the son of billionaire liberal donor George Soros, who has launched his own super PAC aimed at diminishing the influence that groups like his have on politics:

“We openly acknowledge the irony of being a super PAC trying to address money in politics,” Soros said. “But our goal is to eventually decrease the influence of this kind of group… We don’t see any other path to real legislative change.”

Money – and lots of it – has become increasingly central for participation in democracy. So it is no surprise that the very wealthy continue to flood the airwaves with advertisements that are aimed to protect and advance their own wealth and hush the majority of Americans who cannot afford to speak.

Who knew that free speech cost so much?

This type of action underscores a major problem in a government that is meant to be by, for, and of the people. When spending millions via a super PAC is necessary to be heard, we have clearly let money dictate the legislative and democratic process. Further, it illustrates the fact that in order to participate in political free speech it is all but necessary to have millions of dollars.

Just one percent of all Americans are millionaires, compared to almost 50 percent of Congressmen who are millionaires. Is it truly a government that is representative of and accountable to the majority of a people?

With the Supreme Court’s Citizens United reasoning that money is speech and therefore cannot be limited, corporations and wealthy individuals are able to “speak” and spend as much as they want all the while drowning out other voices. You’re free to speak to your friends at a bar, but when it comes to speaking in the political process you really need a big checkbook along with a big mouth.

This speech can be anonymous, creating a dangerous dynamic that is in stark contrast to the fundamental notion that source matters when evaluating a message. The American people deserve to know the source behind the ads flooding their televisions.

Big money is speaking louder than any single person’s words. So it is that in the noble endeavor to rein in unbridled spending, we can only hope that Jonathan Soros is so successful that he works himself right out of a job.

This article was published at NationofChange at: http://www.nationofchange.org/soros-starts-anti-super-pac-super-pac-1342532982. All rights are reserved.