Home/Recent kwiples > Issues >

money in politics

Tuesday 31st of March 2026

2016 Presidential election Fuck the law. I don't give a fuck about the law. I want my fucking money. Shut it down. Donald Trump, reacting to the news that his campaign was paying for its transition team members, as is required by federal law © 2019 Kwiple.com
2016 Presidential primaries THE SUGAR THE DADDY WARD Sheldon Marc Norman Foster Woody Jeffrey Charles & David Charles & David Charles & David Charles & David Charles & David Ken Joe Billy Joe (Red) Tom John Robert Haim Donald Alice  Adelson Benioff Braman Friess Johnson Katzenbberg Koch Koch Koch Koch Koch Langone Lonsdale McCombs McKernan Menard, Jr. Mercer Saban Trump Walton Rick Hillary Marco Rick Jeb Hillary Jeb Ted Rand Marco Scott Chris Rand Rick Rick Scott Ted Hillary Donald Hillary  Santorum Clinton Rubio Santorum Bush Clinton Bush Cruz Paul Rubio Walker Christie Paul Perry Perry Walker Cruz Clinton Trump Clinton © 2015 Kwiple.com
2016 Presidential primaries THE TIT THE SUCKER America Leads PAC America's Liberty PAC Believe Again PAC CARLY for America PAC Citizens for Restoring USA PAC Conservative Solutions PAC Generation Forward PAC Keep the Promise PAC New Day for America PAC Opportunity and Freedom PAC Priorities USA Action PAC Pursuing America's Greatness PAC Right to Rise PAC Run Ben Run PAC Security is Strength PAC Unintimidated PAC We the People Not Washington PAC Working Again PAC  Chris Christie Rand Paul Bobby Jindal Carly Fiorina Donald Trump Marco Rubio Martin O'Malley Ted Cruz John Kasich Rick Perry Hillary Clinton Mike Huckabee Jeb Bush Ben Carson Lindsey Graham Scott Walker George Pataki Rick Santorum © 2015 Kwiple.com
2016 Presidential primaries We've been here for over two hours and we haven't gotten paid for our time. “seat fillers” interrupting Jeb Bush's last rally before the Iowa caucuses © 2016 Kwiple.com
2018 midterm elections In the 2018 elections, for example, for every $1,000 contributed to political campaigns by unions and worker groups, businesses contributed about $16,000. Elizabeth Warren, Persist © 2021 Kwiple.com
2020 Presidential election Mr Trump has been backed by 15 CEOs of companies in the S&P 500 index, including Jeffrey Sprecher of Intercontinental Exchange, Steven Roth of the property group Vornado and Sheldon Adelson, the Las Vegas Sands casino magnate who has poured $180m into the Republicans' 2020 war chest. Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, Financial Times, October 30. 2020 © 2020 Kwiple.com
Bullshitters say I never saw the actual text.  Republican Senator Bob Corker, who said he'd never support a tax bill that raised the national debt by even $1, responding to critics after reversing himself and announcing he'd vote for the 2017 tax bill increasing the debt by $1,500,000,000,000 after a provision was added to reduce taxes on real estate developers like himself and the Trumps © 2017 Kwiple.com
By the numbers In the 2016 presidential race, the 100 biggest donors have spent more than the 2 million smallest donors combined. Brennan Center for Justice © 2016 Kwiple.com
Citizens United Proverb affirmed: A golden key can open any door © 2015 Kwiple.com
Citizens United Every piece of this is wrong. Money is not speech. Corporations are not people. And looking at the message and not the messenger would allow any entity's message into our politics, even foreign ones. Then add in anonymity and the problem goes toxic, as we now see in our country today. “We the people” becomes “we the hidden anything with money.” Sheldon Whitehouse, June 8, 2021 © 2021 Kwiple.com
Citizens United Proverb affirmed: He who pays the piper calls the tune © 2015 Kwiple.com
Citizens United Proverb affirmed: Money talks © 2015 Kwiple.com
Citizens United Proverb affirmed: The voice of the poor has no echo © 2015 Kwiple.com
Citizens United Proverb affirmed: You get what you pay for © 2015 Kwiple.com
Citizenship Citizenship is an office, and that office has duties. The duties include being informed about what is going on around you, and what is stopping Americans from knowing what is going on around them is the cascade, the torrent, the Nile River of dark money that has begun to flow into our democracy since Citizens United. Sheldon Whitehouse, January 19, 2022 © 2022 Kwiple.com
Cocks of the walk say I think nobody knows more about campaign finance than I do because I'm the biggest contributor. Donald Trump © 2018 Kwiple.com
Corruption If the accusations against Senator Robert Menendez are true — and it’s not looking good — old-fashioned bribery, payments to politicians in exchange for favors, hasn’t gone away.  But it’s probably not shaping party ideology.  Campaign contributions, on the other hand, definitely do shape ideology. Paul Krugman, New York Times, September 26, 2023 © 2023 Kwiple.com
Corruption If you offer money to a government to influence it, that is corruption. But if someone receives money for services rendered afterwards, that is a commission. Adnan Khashoggi, renowned international arms dealer © 2018 Kwiple.com
Dead-in-the-heads say The problem with women voting — and your Communists will back me up on this — is that, you know, women have no capacity to understand how money is earned. They have a lot of ideas on how to spend it. And when they take these polls, it's always more money on education, more money on child care, more money on day care. Ann Coulter © 2015 Kwiple.com
Democracy This is what the death of American democracy looks like. It's time to acknowledge that we no longer have a democracy, but a plutocracy: Government of the rich, by the rich, for the rich, brought to you by Citizens United and the Supreme Court. Stephen Wolf, “Just 158 families account for nearly half of all presidential campaign donations,” Daily Kos, October 12, 2015 © 2021 Kwiple.com
Democrats to 1%ers How do I love thee? Let me count the way$ Elizabeth Barrett Browning, “Sonnet 43” © 2015 Kwiple.com
Elections Money beat money © 2015 Kwiple.com
Fascism The first truth [about the liberty of a democratic people] is that the liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerate the growth of private power to a point where it becomes stronger than their democratic state itself.  That, in its essence, is fascism — ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. Franklin Delano Roosevelt, April 29, 1938, Message to Congress on Curbing Monopolies © 2022 Kwiple.com
Fascists There are two kinds of fascists: those who give orders and those who take them. A popular base gives fascism the legs it needs to march, the lungs it uses to proclaim, and the muscle it relies on to menace — but that's fascism from the neck down. To create tyranny out of the fears and  hopes of average people, money is required, and, so too, ambition and twisted ideas. It is the combination that kills. In the absence of wealthy backers, we likely would never had heard of Corporal Mussolini or Corporal Hitler. Madeleine Albright, Fascism: A Warning © 2021 Kwiple.com
Government Government by organized wealth is just as dangerous as Government by organized mob. Franklin Delano Roosevelt © 2021 Kwiple.com
Gun control activists say There should be a background check before the NRA is allowed to buy a Senator Placard, New York City, March For Our Lives rally, March 24, 2018 © 2018 Kwiple.com
Gun lobbyists say to Republican legislators  We paid for you and don't you ever forget it © 2018 Kwiple.com
Kwiple dictionary First Amendment (fûrst ə mend' ment), n. According to Supreme Court decisions since the mid-1970s, it's the Constitutional provision that guarantees corporations and non-profits the right to spend unlimited amounts to buy elections, legislatures and courts, and ordinary people the right to burn flags in protest, except on its grounds. © 2015 Kwiple.com
Kwiple dictionary plutocrat (plū'tə krat'), n. A person who spends millions or billions furthering his interests by creating “grass roots” front organizations to do his bidding in courts of law and the court of public opinion, often by inciting outrage against alleged “elites.” © 2015 Kwiple.com
Kwiplers say Amend the Constitution to limit the total dollar amount an individual or a for-profit or a non-profit organization may donate to candidates and political parties together during a calendar year to one half of the previous year's median family income © 2015 Kwiple.com
Kwiplers say Never forget #CorkerKickback © 2017 Kwiple.com
Kwiplers say c Prohibit ballots from listing the name of anyone who raised or spent money, or for whom others raised or spent it, prior to the person's official announcement of their candidacy for office © 2015 Kwiple.com
Kwiplers say Require Political Action Committees (PACs) to identity the source and amount of all contributions they received from tax-inverted companies in all communications with the public © 2016 Kwiple.com
Kwiplers say Require public records of all political ads sold by Facebook, Google and other online advertisers, just as they are already required for ones sold by radio and TV stations and by print publishers © 2017 Kwiple.com
Liars say I don't need anybody's money. I'm using my own money. I'm not using donors. I don't care. I'm really rich. Donald Trump © 2019 Kwiple.com
Libertarians to 1%ers How do I love thee? Let me count the way$ Elizabeth Barrett Browning, “Sonnet 43” © 2015 Kwiple.com
Lobbyists We had a hierarchy in my office in Congress. If you're a lobbyist who never gave us money, I didn't talk to you. If you're a lobbyist who gave us money, I might talk to you.  Mick Mulvaney, pimp for payday lenders, telling traditional bankers his pay-to-play rules © 2018 Kwiple.com
Making money the new-fashioned way Spending half your time fundraising to get re-elected © 2016 Kwiple.com
Money in politics A 2015 Times report found that at that point fewer than 400 families accounted for almost half the money raised in the 2016 presidential campaign. Paul Krugman, New York Times, July 5, 2020 © 2020 Kwiple.com
Money in politics Among Americans overall, roughly 18 percent make political donations,  usually in amounts between $25 and $100. Forty percent of all political donations come from the top 1 percent of the 1 percent. Jaime Lowe, New York Times Magazine, April 7, 2022 © 2022 Kwiple.com
Money in politics Anonymity, donor anonymity, is essential [to big donors to the Republican Party]. Voters may hate big anonymous donors,  but big anonymous donors need anonymity. The term for this anonymous funding, now pouring by the billions into our politics, is dark money. This [operation to capture the Supreme Court] is a dark money operation. And if you are out to capture a court, you want to be sure the court will protect your dark money, your camouflage for all your covert operations. Sheldon Whitehouse, July 13, 2021 © 2021 Kwiple.com
Money in politics Anybody that makes a “Contribution” to Birdbrain, from this moment forth, will be permanently barred from the MAGA camp. Donald Trump, Jan 24, 2024, 8:49 PM [By “Birdbrain,” Trump means Nikki Haley, not himself or his spawn. “MAGA camp” is a nationwide day camp where disinformed adults frolic and wallow.] © 2024 Kwiple.com
Money in politics As a businessman and a very substantial donor to very important people, when you give, they do whatever the hell you want them to do. As a businessman, I need that. Donald Trump, justifying hiis donating to politicians to reap benefits from paying-to-play Wall Street Journal, August 25, 2016 © 2016 Kwiple.com
Money in politics The Best Way to Vilify Clinton? G.O.P. Spends Heavily to Find It headline, New York Times, July 12, 2015, article about hundreds of millions of dollars Karl Rove's super-PAC, American Crossroads, and other Republican groups are spending developing and field testing attack ads smearing Clinton and her character © 2015 Kwiple.com
Money in politics The disappearance of labor's countervailing power can readily be seen in the 2015-16 election cycle, when corporations and Wall Street contributed $34 to candidates from both parties for every $1 donated by unions and all public interest organizations combined. [34:1] Business outspent labor $3.4 billion to $213 million. [16:1] All of the nation's unions together spend about $48 million annually on lobbying in Washington. Corporate America spends $3 billion. [62:1] Robert B. Reich, The System © 2021 Kwiple.com
Money in politics Drop a rock in a stream and the stream flows around it. Put eager candidates and enormous interested spenders together, and trouble will follow, as it has. Look no further than the corruption of American politics on climate change by the fossil fuel industry. Sheldon Whitehouse © 2021 Kwiple.com
Money in politics Former top national security advisors side with tech companies in disputes with government over privacy rights AFTER quitting government to work for the tech companies, which pay way more than government © 2016 Kwiple.com
Money in politics Government by organized money is just as dangerous as Government by organized mob. Franklin Delano Roosevelt © 2021 Kwiple.com
Money in politics He [Trump] made Gary Cohn, the former president of Goldman Sachs, his top economic advisor. On his way out of Goldman, Cohn received the promise of a staggering $285 million from the firm. Nice, but the money came with a catch: Cohn wouldn't get the big bucks if he  joined the Red Cross or started teaching in a rural elementary school or just retired. Nope: he could only collect this boatload of money if he left the firm to work in the White House. Elizabeth Warren, Persist © 2021 Kwiple.com
Money in politics House members in competitive races have raised, on average, $2.6 million for the 2014 midterm. That amounts to $3,600 raised a day — seven days a week, 52 weeks a year. Surveys show that members spend up to 70 percent of their time fund- raising during an election year. Two years later, they'll have to do it all again. David Schanzer and Jay Sullivan, New York Times, November 3, 2014 © 2015 Kwiple.com
Money in politics I don’t waste my time on stories that involve money and politics because what I care about is ideas. Leonard Leo, recipient of a $1.6 billion donation from Chicago billionaire Barre Seid to spend on getting conservatives who are committed to returning America to the eighteenth century (when things were as they should be) appointments as judges at all levels of the judiciary — federal, state, and local © 2023 Kwiple.com
Money in politics I give to everybody. When they call, I give. And you know what? When I need something from them, two years later, three years later, I call them. They are there for me. And that's a broken system. Donald Trump © 2021 Kwiple.com
Money in politics I'm against very wealthy people attempting to or influencing elections. But as long as it's doable, I'm going to do it. Sheldon Adelson, who does it to the tune of about $100,000,000 per election © 2015 Kwiple.com
Money in politics I would do that, yeah, if I had to. I make $400 million a year, so what difference does it make? Donald Trump, answering a question about whether he would be willing to spend $1 billion of his own money to get elected President © 2016 Kwiple.com
Money in politics If I suddenly heard Adolf Hitler was alive in South America and wanted to give a million dollars to the American Mercury, I would go down and get it. William Bradford Huie, on selling the American Mercury, then a social-democratic magazine, to a far-right businessman © 2018 Kwiple.com
Money in politics If you've got the money I've got the time We'll go honky tonkin' and we'll have a time We'll make all the night spots dance drink beer and wine If you've got the money honey I've got the time … But if you run short of money I'll run short of time Cause you with no more money honey I've no more time Lefty Frizzell, “If You've Got the Money I've Got the Time” © 2021 Kwiple.com
Money in politics In the [New Hampshire] Senate race [Republican] Ms Ayotte is still level pegging with [Democrat] Ms Hassan. It is the most expensive election in New Hampshire's history. With 1.8m people, the projected $100m in spending will exceed the total cost of the Brexit referendum in the UK – a country of 65m. Financial Times, October 15-16, 2016 © 2016 Kwiple.com
Money in politics In order to achieve the widest possible distribution of political power, financial contributions to political campaigns should be made should be made by individuals alone. I see no reason for labor unions – or corporations – to participate in politics. Barry Goldwater, Conscience of a Conservative © 2019 Kwiple.com
Money in politics In some ways Obama is to election finance what  George [W] Bush had been to tax cuts — a bonanza.  Edward Luce, Time to Start Thinking  © 2017 Kwiple.com
Money in politics In the election cycle of 2016, the richest one-hundredth  of 1 percent of Americans — 24,949 extraordinarily wealthy people — accounted for a record-breaking 40 percent of all campaign contributions. By contrast, in 1980, the top 0.01 percent accounted for only 15 percent of all contributions. Robert B. Reich, The System © 2021 Kwiple.com
Money in politics In the 1980s, about 10 percent of all campaign spending came from one-tenth of 1 percent (0.01 percent) of the voting age population. By 2012, more than 40 percent of spending came from this tiny sliver of wealthy Americans. … [I]n 2012 the combined contributions of the 3.7 million small donors to the Obama and Romney campaigns amounted to less than the total contibutions of the 159 largest individual super PAC contributors. Benjamin Page and Martin Gilens, Democracy in America? © 2019 Kwiple.com
Money in politics In the 2015-16 election cycle, business outspent labor $3.4 billion to $213 million, a ratio of 16 to 1, according to the non- partisan Center for Responsive Politics. All of the nation's unions, taken together, spend about $48 million a year for lobbying in Washington, while corporate America spends $3 billion. Little wonder that many lawmakers seem vastly more interested in cutting taxes on cororations than in raising the minimum wage. Steven Greenhouse, New York Times, August 3, 2109 © 2019 Kwiple.com
Money in politics It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends on his not undertanding it. Upton Sinclair © 2021 Kwiple.com
Money in politics Just as Republicans repay their donors with tax cuts, Democrats repay their base with debt forgiveness. Edward Luce, Financial Times, December 7, 2022 © 2022 Kwiple.com
Money in politics Money buys politicians. This is plutocracy, not democracy. Martin Wolf, Financial Times, December 4, 2019 © 2019 Kwiple.com
Money in politics Money can “buy time” from legislators –win their attention and get them to to step up their activity– but it seldom pushes them into switching sides. Instead, the big effects of money giving mostly involve getting friendly officials elected  and getting access  to officials once they are in office. Benjamin Page and Martin Gilens, Democracy in America? © 2019 Kwiple.com
Money in politics Money is like water; it will follow whatever path is open to it. Ganesh Sitaraman, The Crisis of the Middle-Class Constitution © 2021 Kwiple.com
Money in politics Money per se is not driving politics and policy. Instead, the fury of political competition draws money in. Richard M. Valelly, American Politics © 2018 Kwiple.com
Money in politics Money talks, Mr. President. Dark money whispers. Sheldon Whitehouse, speaking in the Senate, July 28, 2021 © 2021 Kwiple.com
Money in politics My warning, if you will, to corporate America is to stay out if politics. … I'm not talking about political contributions. Mitch McConnell © 2022 Kwiple.com
Money in politics Over the past decade, just ten people — ten donors and their spouses — have injected more than $1.1 billion into super PACs and other organizations that support their favored candidates. Ten families have a voice in Washington that drowns out millions of families who also need government on their side. Elizabeth Warren, Persist © 2021 Kwiple.com
Money in politics Performative fundraising is a prism through which to understand not only the GOP activity during the impeachment hearings but also the Republicans' Benghazi hearings and the end- less posturing around repealing Obamacare. It's not about achieving policy goals as much as energizing the base and separating them from their cash. Performative fundraising favors simplistic narratives, melodramatic rhetoric, an implacable enemy, and rote phrases to crowd out reasoned debate. Snippets of the act become fundraising pitches. Facebook microtargeting and e-mail lists ensure that pitches reach conservative retirees, especially in sunbelt states like Florida, California and Texas. Jake Bernstein, New York Review of Books, April 23, 2020 © 2020 Kwiple.com
Money in politics Pfizer, whose donations to the GOP in 2016 totaled $16 million, would reap $39 billion [in savings from the tax cuts passed by Congress in 2017]. [2,437:1] GE contributed $20 million and will get back $16 billion in tax savings. [800:1] Chevron donated $13 million and received $9 billion. [692:1] Not even a sizzling economy can deliver anything close to the returns on political investments. Robert B. Reich, The System © 2021 Kwiple.com
Money in politics “Poor man wanna be rich, Rich man wanna be king” [sang Bruce Springsteen in “Badlands”]. If you are a creepy right-wing billionaire [like Barre Seid] and you know the public hates your view of the world, the only way to be king is to work your way around democratic processes, go clandestine, and find a scamp like Leonard Leo who knows how to move levers secretly. Sheldon Whitehouse © 2023 Kwiple.com
Money in politics The president reimbursed it over a period of several months. Rudy Giuliani, Donald Trump's lawyer, on Michael Cohen's $130,000 hush money payment to Stormy Daniels on the eve of the 2016 presidential election © 2018 Kwiple.com
Money in politics The president repaid it … He didn't know about the specifics of it, as far as I know, but he did know about the general arrangement that Michael would take care of things like this, like I take care of things like this for my clients. I don't burden them with every single thing that comes along. These are busy people. Rudy Giuliani, Donald Trump's lawyer, on Michael Cohen's $130,000 hush money payment to Stormy Daniels on the eve of the 2016 presidential election © 2018 Kwiple.com
Money in politics The president's partnership with the Republican Party means he can solicit checks of more than $360,000 from each donor, far exceeding the $2,800 each Democratic candidate can ask of donors for that party's primary election. Wall Street Journal, October 1, 2019 © 2015 Kwiple.com
Money in politics  Report: Trump lawyer  brokered $130,000 payment to porn star headline, Washington Post, January 12, 2018 © 2018 Kwiple.com
Money in politics Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, the controversial Arizona Democrat who threatens to derail President Biden's legislative agenda, received more than $750,000 in donations from the pharma- ceutical and medical device industries. After that, she announced her opposition to a Democratic plan to lower prescription drug costs. … During her successful 2018 Senate campaign, Sinema repeatedly vowed to lower prescription drug prices and drug costs for seniors. Salon, September 23, 2021 © 2021 Kwiple.com
Money in politics Somebody should look into who paid for the small organized rallies yesterday. The election is over! Donald Trump, 9:13 AM – 16 Apr 2017, questioning the motivation of the 125,000+ people who took part in April 15 Tax Day rallies in 200 communities to demand that he release his tax returns © 2017 Kwiple.com
Money in politics Soon your sugar-daddies will all be gone. You'll wake up some cold day and find you're alone. You'll call to me but I'm gonna tell you: “Bye, bye, bye,” When I turn around and walk away, you'll cry, cry, cry. Johnny Cash, “Cry Cry Cry” © 2015 Kwiple.com
Money in politics There are two things that are important in politics. The first is money, and I can't remember what the second is. Mark Hanna © 2021 Kwiple.com
Money in politics There's … there's two people, I think, Putin pays. Putin pays: [California Representative Dana] Rohrabacher and Trump … [laughter]… swear to God. Kevin McCarthy, 2017, now a devout Trumpist  © 2019 Kwiple.com
Money in politics This effort to capture the Supreme Court — they're not kidding around. Spending $250 million in dark money [from 2014 to 2017] is a serious investment that demands a serious return. And guess what? Expert testimony before my Senate Court subcommitte has since raised that number to $400 million through 2018. Through all these allied and front groups — the keys on the dark money piano that the big money donors can play in chords and singly, as they wish — dark money donors can, from hiding, covertly channel tens if not hundreds of millios of dollars in anonymized money towards the scheme's court capture goal. Sheldon Whitehouse, August 5, 2021, on efforts by the Judicial Crisis Network to make the Supreme Court a tool for use by the right- wing anti-government mega donors it represents © 2021 Kwiple.com
Money in politics This is an impressive crowd: the haves and have-mores. Some people call you elites: I call you my base. George W. Bush © 2017 Kwiple.com
Money in politics  When “Billionaires and Stealth Politics” [by Benjamin Page, Jason Seawright and Matthew Lacombe] came out in 2018, Page says, multimillionaires who made political contribu- tions gave on average around $4,500 annually; for billionaires, the amount was $500,000. And, he emphasizes, that was just reported contributions, which means it didn't include any so-called dark money, the political giving by undisclosed donors that was blessed  by the Supreme Court’s ruling in Citizens United.  Page adds that 21 percent of the multimillionaires in their study bundled political donations from other people. “Twenty-one percent is a lot,” he says. “But then, among the billionaires, it was 36 percent.” Jaime Lowe, New York Times Magazine, April 7, 2022 © 2022 Kwiple.com
Money in politics When I ran for office that year, there were three main models of funding a Senate race: (1) ask lots of rich people and PACs for money; (2) hope that a super PAC would support you; (3) finance your campaign with your own personal fortune. We decided to try a fourth model: launch an online small-dollar fundraising effort. Elizabeth Warren, Persist on her 2012 run for the Senate, which she won © 2021 Kwiple.com
Money in politics Winning the White House in 2016 is expected to cost the successful candidate more than $1bn. Billionaire mega-donors like the Koch Brothers have already pledged to raise nearly $900m through their sprawling political network, to back conservative candidates. Financial Times, April 1, 2015, a mere 587 days prior to election day, November 8, 2016 © 2015 Kwiple.com
Money in politics With the RNC now joining President Trump's campaign in a joint fundraising committee, we're issuing new guidelines for candidates and committees who choose to use President Trump's name, image, and likeness in fundraising solicitations.  Beginning tomorrow, we ask that all candidates and committees who choose to use President Trump's name, image, and likeness split a  minimum of 5% of all fundraising solicitations to Trump National Committee JFC. … Any split that is higher than 5% will be seen favorably by the RNC and President Trump's  campaign and routinely reported to the highest  levels of leadership within both organizations.  April 15, 2024, letter from JFC to all (R) campigns © 2024 Kwiple.com
Political parties They've got a set of Republican waiters  on one side and a set of Democratic waiters on the other side, but no matter which set of waiters brings you the dish, the legislative grub is all prepared in the same Wall Street kitchen. Huey Long, 1932 campaign speech for the reeledtion of Senator Hattie Caraway (D-AR) © 2022 Kwiple.com
Pluralism The flaw in the pluralist heaven is that the heavenly chorus sings with a strong upper-class accent. E. E. Schattschneider, The Semisovereign People: A Realist's View of Democracy in America © 2021 Kwiple.com
Profiles in courage Paul Ryan, chief advocate of the hated-by-the-public 2017 Tax Bill, fearing a potential defeat that would most likely kill his presidential chances, says he won't run for reelection in 2018, and will, without saying so, spend years collecting generous speakers fees from large corporations gifted by the bill  © 2017 Kwiple.com
Presidency The question I get asked more than any other question: “If you had to do it again, would you have done it?” The answer is, yeah, I think so. Because here's the way I look at it. I have [made] so many rich friends and nobody knows who they are. Donald Trump, on running for, and being, president © 2022 Kwiple.com
Republicans to 1%ers How do I love thee? Let me count the way$ Elizabeth Barrett Browning, “Sonnet 43” © 2015 Kwiple.com
Resisters say No one paid me to be here  Placard, NYC Science March, Earth Day, April 22, 2017 © 2017 Kwiple.com
Selfie I will always be well financed, and I will be well financed early. Mitch McConnell © 2015 Kwiple.com
Selfie I know that as a consequence of my fund-raising I became more like the wealthy donors I met. Barack Obama, The Audacity of Hope © 2019 Kwiple.com
Selfie It's very possible that I could be the first presidential candidate to run and make money on it. Donald Trump, when considering running for President as the Reform Party candidate in 2000 © 2016 Kwiple.com
Sentiments Republican Senators are incapable of feeling  Lew Rudin has given me too much money for me to vote for this. Daniel Patrick Moynihan, Democratic Senator from New York and  Senate Finance Committee chairman (1990s), commenting on a proposed tax bill that would greatly enrich Lew Rudin, a constituent, longtime friend and major donor © 2017 Kwiple.com
Sleepers at the wheel say Talking back means your voice will be heard © 2018 Kwiple.com
Snapshot Having never served his country before being elected President, he chose to serve his family instead. Donald Trump portrayed by Rudyard Kwipler © 2018 Kwiple.com
State of the union Business practices aimed at boosting shareholder value – like outsourcing, offshoring, automation, union-busting, predatory lending, and a range of anti-competitive abuses – have undermined the security of large swaths of the country. In turn, a flood of business dollars for campaign donations and lobbying over decades has helped thwart effective government responses to rising pain on Main Street. David Callahan © 2017 Kwiple.com
State of the union c The “deep state” of c right-wing billionaires with their money, think tanks, institutes and foundations; financial and industrial elites with their money and “revolving door” roles as regulators ensuring regulatory capture; and the military-intelligence bureaucracy with its money and cost-plus contractors c rules from behind the scenes regardless of who's elected © 2016 Kwiple.com
State of the union Politicians everywhere genuflect to Silicon Valley moneybags © 2015 Kwiple.com
State of the union Within the particular domain of independent political advocacy the principle of free speech now trumps the principle that previously inspired congressional regulation of campaign finance, namely that there is a public interest in preventing the appearance of corruption in electoral politics. Richard M. Valelly, American Politics © 2018 Kwiple.com
Stealth politics The practice of “stealth politics” [remaining silent about public issues] raises questions that go beyond the general issue of unequal, money-based political influence. Stealth politics also weakens political accountability. Stealthy billionaires can quietly use their money to promote ideas that are narrowly self-interested and in conflict with the views of most ordinary citizens. By remaining largely silent about their views and obscuring their financial contributions, billionaires can fly under the radar – promoting policies that most citizens reject but drawing little attention. Benjamin Page and Martin Gilens, Democracy in America? © 2019 Kwiple.com
Supreme Court Colleagues, this is a scheme akin in complexity and tradecraft to an intelligence agency covert operation, only this one is not being run by one country against another. This one is being run in and against our own country by a handful of creepy billionaires and their donations trying to impose their self-serving ideology on the rest of us through our least democratic branch, the branch that doesn't care if normal people hate this stuff because they're in robes for life. That's our federal courts, and particularly the Surpeme Court. And the big dark money donors have pretty well pulled it off, too, following Lewis Powell's admonition to use strength in organization and united action. Sheldon Whitehouse, August 5, 2021, on efforts by the Judicial Crisis Network to make the Supreme Court a tool for use by the right- wing anti-government mega donors it represents © 2021 Kwiple.com
Supreme Court The effort to capture the Court has likely been the most effectual deployment of right-wing and corporate resources into our common American political life, and America is now a very different place as a result of it. Much of it, like the proverbial frog in the proverbial pot, we've even gotten used to and accept it now as normal, when it isn't. Sheldon Whitehouse, June 22, 2021 © 2021 Kwiple.com
Supreme Court The FBI sacrificed her [Christine Blasey Ford] to the gale force political pressure applied by the [dark money] scheme [to capture the court] to get this well-auditioned nominee [Brett Kavanaugh] into place. And let's get real. You don't apply gale force political pressure for judges who are just going to call balls and strikes. $400 million, $400 million has been spent in dark money on this court capture scheme. For $400 million, you don't want balls and strikes; you want judges who will throw the game for you. You want what you paid for: a captured Court, and if you look at its track record, that's this Court. It's the Court that dark money built, and it's delivering. Sheldon Whitehouse, September 21, 2021, summarizing the history of the appointment of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court © 2021 Kwiple.com
Supreme Court [I]n the recent view of a majority on the U.S. Supreme Court, democratic responsiveness need not mean responding to all citizens equally. It can mean responding unequally, giving special weight to people or corporations that spend large amounts of money. Benjamin Page and Martin Gilens, Democracy in America?  [2017] © 2019 Kwiple.com
Supreme Court Our Supreme Court is awash in dark money influence, with flotillas of dark money front groups, front groups that don't bother to offer value, that aren't even real in the sense that they have a real business or function, that exist merely to signal their donors' desired outcomes while hiding their donors' identities. It's an armada of fakery that the Court indulges. This fakery lets a small, wealthy donor elite manufacture sham allies to get themselves a bigger say at the Supreme Court than everyone else. They are out to get the Court to do stuff for them that Americans don't want and that Congress won't vote for. But, with a captured Court, they can get what they want, and they do. Sheldon Whitehouse, November 16, 2021 © 2021 Kwiple.com
Supreme Court  The Republican justices on the Supreme Court just established a new constitutional right to donor se- crecy. And they did so for a group — Americans for Prosperity Foundation — flagrantly involved in right-wing political mischief and manipulation. Flagrantly involved. The Americans for Prosper- ity Foundation group's operating entity actually had even spent millions of dollars just last year to help get Justice Barrett confirmed.  They are so brazen about this they actually used  Americans for Prosperity Foundation as the named party, and not some benign entity they could have dredged up. Nope. They took the bet that  this precedent of a politically active manipulator being the named party would not phase the Re- publicans on the Court, and they would be able with that partisan majority to gain a legal foothold for their dark money. Sheldon Whitehouse, July 13, 2021 © 2021 Kwiple.com
Supreme Court Something is not right around the Court. And dark money has a lot to do with it. Special interests have a lot to do with it. Donors Trust and whoever's hiding behind Donors Trust has a lot to do with it. And the Bradley Foundation orchestrating its amici over at the Court has a lot to do with it. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, confirmation hearing for Amy Coney Barrett, October 13, 2020 [Donors Trust is an identity scrubber for rich conservatives] [The Bradley Foundation funds legal cases and amicus briefs under dozens of names per case for conservative clients] © 2020 Kwiple.com
Supreme Court There is a pattern, a pattern of success when flotillas of dark money amici funded by a small number of wealthy right-wing donors show up, they win. The court that dark money built delivers in their favor. Exhibit A is probably the US Chamber of Commerce, where the idea for this scheme first bubbled up years ago with the Powell memo. Over the past 15 years or so, the Chamber has filed more amici briefs at the Supreme Court than almost anyone else, and it has gotten its preferred result more than 70% of the time. And no one knows what company or  what interest the Chamber may be fronting for. That is hidden from the Court and from the other parties. The Chamber can even hide if one of its members wrote or funded the Chamber's amicus brief in that member's own case. Sheldon Whitehouse, November 16, 2021 © 2021 Kwiple.com
Supreme Court When big Republican donor interests come before the Court, they win. It looks like every time. I've show the pattern. I've published an article about it. It's currently at 80-0. Sheldon Whitehouse, October 27, 2021 © 2021 Kwiple.com
Supreme Court to 1%ers How do I love thee? Let me count the ways Elizabeth Barrett Browning, “Sonnet 43” © 2015 Kwiple.com
Surely you jest I'm not looking for anything, except if I'm fortunate enough to be invited to another [White House] Hanukkah party, I want two potato pancakes, because last time I was there, they ran out of them. Sheldon Adelson to Mitt Romney, to whose Political Action Committee he donated $30,000,000 in 2012 © 2015 Kwiple.com
Surely you jest Trump International Hotel Washington DC has made a “hefty profit” since Trump took office. Who'd've ever thunk it?  © 2017 Kwiple.com
Tea Partiers to 1%ers How do I love thee? Let me count the way$ Elizabeth Barrett Browning, “Sonnet 43” © 2015 Kwiple.com
Terrorism The more fear you make, the more loot you take.  Lex Luther, Superman's arch enemy © 2017 Kwiple.com
Trumpists say We have to ensure that  every single penny of every dollar donated [to the Republican National Committee] goes to causes that people care about. That’s part of the reason that I think I’m such a great fit for this.  There’s no one more loyal to Donald Trump  and the Make America Great Again move- ment than this person you’re looking at right here; than me. Lara Trump, Etric's wife and Trump's daughter-in-law on her appointment as co-chair of the RNC [The “causes” are reelecting Donald Trump and paying his legal bills; nothing else.] © 2024 Kwiple.com
Veterans That's the highest award you can get as a civilian. It’s [The Presidential Medal of Freedom] the equivalent of the Congressional Medal of Honor, but civilian version. It’s actually much better because everyone [who] gets the Congressional Medal of Honor, they’re soldiers. They’re either in very bad shape because they’ve been hit so many times by bullets or they’re dead. She gets it and she's a healthy, beautiful woman. Donald Trump, awarding the Medal of Freedom to Miriam Adelson, one his billionaire donors © 2024 Kwiple.com
Wealth inequality According to the UC Berkeley economists Emmanuel Saez and Gabriel Zucman, the 160,000 or so households in that group [the 0.1 percent] held 22 percent of America's wealth in 2012, up from 10 percent in 1963. If you're looking for the kind of money that can buy elections, you'll find it inside the top 0.1 percent alone. Matthew Stewart, The Atlantic, June 2018 © 2020 Kwiple.com
Wealth inequality [W]ealthy Americans wield a lot of influence. By investing money in politics, they can turn economic power into political power. Thus the United States suffers from what can be called “unequal democracy.” Benjamin Page and Martin Gilens, Democracy in America? © 2019 Kwiple.com
 
Yachts Seventy to 80 million – that would be a yacht. This would be a lot more fun than a yacht! Donald Trump, responding to Newt Gingrich, who answered Trump's question about the cost of running for president, that it would cost about $70 to $80 million to fund a competitive campaign through the South Carolina primary © 2018 Kwiple.com