David RobertsFeb 23
One of the most important things to understand about US politics -- & I strongly suspect this is true in other places as well -- is that the political elite dramatically overestimates the conservatism of the public.

Why Congress Thinks Voters Are...
Study: Congress Overestimates the Public’s Conservatism

A new study finds that congressional staffers think that their constituents are much more conservative than they actually are. Which makes sense: On most issues, the only constituents that Congress needs to worry about upsetting are corporations.

Intelligencer
Show threadDavid Roberts
I don't think it's a mystery why, either. By definition, most moneyed incumbents are conservative, ie, invested in protecting & preserving existing social & economic hierarchies -- & most media is owned & controlled by monied incumbents. There you go: mystery solved.
Feb 23 at 8:30pmWeb
Show threadNicole ParsonsFeb 24

@volts.wtf

We also have a problem with the money the wealthy leave behind to torpedo progress.
Rich dead people have more voting power than living voters.

Bradley's money from 1965 has been chugging away at destroying the Voting Rights Act for decades.
https://theintercept.com/2021/08/07/election-fraud-bradley-impact-fund-donors/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bradley_Foundation

https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/conservatives-who-gutted-voting-rights-act-are-now-challenging-one-person-one-vote/

It also buys coup attempts
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/08/09/the-big-money-behind-the-big-lie

Harold Simmons from 2013.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harold_Simmons

Richard Scaife in 2014
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Mellon_Scaife

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Secret Donors to Nonprofit Pushing Trump’s “Big Lie” Election Conspiracy Revealed

Bradley Impact Fund, linked to a major hub of election fraud conspiracy theories, lets donors anonymously give to groups pushing to overthrow the election.

The Intercept
Show threadNicole ParsonsFeb 24

2/

Do dead people have 1st amendment rights?

Bernie Marcus in 2024
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/home-depot-billionaire-says-hed-likely-still-fund-trump-if-candidate-convicted-2023-11-28/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernard_Marcus

Sheldon Adelson in 2021 -- directs policy from the grave
https://www.politico.com/story/2019/01/31/sheldon-adelson-trump-aides-legal-defense-1140928

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/19/us/politics/trump-inauguration-sheldon-adelson-fundraising.html

What on earth are voters supposed to do about Charles Koch's $5 billion?

https://www.forbes.com/sites/mattdurot/2023/10/10/exclusive-charles-koch-koch-industries-has-given-more-than-5-billion-of-his-koch-industries-stock-to-two-nonprofits/

https://popular.info/p/charles-kochs-5-billion-tax-loophole

Charles Koch is buying a planetary ecocide
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/20/us/politics/koch-network-2024-election-trump.html

https://theintercept.com/2022/06/30/supreme-court-epa-climate-charles-koch/

Home Depot billionaire to fund Trump even if he is convicted

Republican mega-donor Bernie Marcus said on Tuesday he would likely still give money to Donald Trump's 2024 presidential bid if the former president was convicted of a crime - but the billionaire does not plan to be one of his biggest financial backers.

Reuters
Show threadNicole ParsonsFeb 24

3/

It took $1.6 billion from Barre Seid to buy the erasure of women's civil rights from a corrupt Supreme Court.
https://www.propublica.org/article/dark-money-leonard-leo-barre-seid

Will Larry Ellison's one-party media monopoly be sabotaging democracy for 50 years after his passing like Bradley's John Birch Society alumni?

How a Secretive Billionaire Handed His Fortune to the Architect of the Right-Wing Takeover of the Courts

In the largest known political advocacy donation in U.S. history, industrialist Barre Seid funded a new group run by Federalist Society co-chair Leonard Leo, who guided Trump’s Supreme Court picks and helped end federal abortion rights.

ProPublica
Show threadNicole ParsonsFeb 24

4/

With Citizens United, long dead foreign petrostate despots can buy America's elections well into the future.
https://www.newsweek.com/who-konstantin-nikolaev-money-mike-johnson-1870600

https://www.rferl.org/a/russia-300-millon/32032247.html

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/01/16/george-santos-andrew-intrater-columbus-nova/

The money of these evil people is cached all over the world.
https://www.theguardian.com/news/2021/oct/04/pandora-papers-reveal-south-dakotas-role-as-367bn-tax-haven

https://www.icij.org/investigations/luxembourg-leaks/ten-years-on-lux-leaks-remains-a-byword-for-corporate-tax-chicanery/

https://www.icij.org/investigations/luxembourg-leaks/new-leak-reveals-luxembourg-tax-deals-disney-koch-brothers-empire/

https://www.theguardian.com/news/2017/nov/05/paradise-papers-leak-reveals-secrets-of-world-elites-hidden-wealth

https://www.icij.org/investigations/panama-papers/hundreds-of-millions-more-dollars-recouped-by-governments-after-icij-investigations/

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/05/world/paradise-papers.html

https://www.icij.org/investigations/pandora-papers/

Funding Ai to thwart #Medicare4All
https://www.fiercehealthcare.com/ai-and-machine-learning/conservative-think-tank-paragon-health-institute-launches-ai-policy-arm

Who Is Konstantin Nikolaev? Putin Ally Behind Mike Johnson Campaign Donation

The Russian oligarch gave money to the Republican's 2018 congressional campaign via a U.S-based company in which he owned a majority.

Newsweek