Want to See How Big Corporations Like Amazon Buy Local U.S. Elections?
Do you have $200,000 to participate in local Seattle politics in 2019? Guess who does? Amazon. Yep, last year they put $65,000 in the Civic Alliance For A Sound Economy Sponsored by the Seattle Chamber political action committee (CASE), 2018. It’s listed as a continuing political committee, renews every year.
This year, Amazon increased their spending almost fourfold compared to 2018. Their contribution to CASE was $350,000 in 2017. In 2017, CASE donated $475,000 to Jenny Durkan’s campaign. Wow. That’s a lot of loot! Good thing they used their bought mayor to promote civic soundness, like, ya know…fixing homelessness.
Oh, what’s that you say? They didn’t just not solve homelessness, but they lobbied against a measure the Seattle City Council passed to move the needle on homelessness: The Head Tax. Wow. So, I guess to CASE a sound economy must require massive homelessness and human suffering. Wonder if Jeff Bezos is gunna require that on his stupid Elysiums? Somebody needs to put space boy in check. Things have just gotten silly in the upper echelons of Amazon’s management.
What else is in common between 2017 and 2019? Yep, pretty important local elections. Now, Good Ole’ Retired Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy might not like to believe this, but: campaign donations absolutely affect policy pursuits!
Anyway, If you want to dig through this committee’s filings, do it here. Just select the year you want, then set the scroll/button next to the year to “committee”, then filter with the word “civic”. The Civic PAC should be towards the bottom. Enjoy!
Big Billion and Trillion Dollar companies do this every year. Corporate asset managers that have access to these decision making capacities and funds to spend simply confer with one another, select a candidate (or candidates) that benefits their interest, and they buy them. Maybe they don’t get them all, but they only needed 50%+1. Make the purchase…oops, I mean campaign donation, then the monopoly’s got’em a politician on the dole, often they wind up with entire legislatures on the dole, after all, someone has to make sure Amazon gets sweet tax deals. Big corporate money has virtually bought every city, state, and federal legislature in this country.
They destroy our environment, they impoverish vast swaths of our country, they launch endless wars, they give millionaire bankers billions when they crash the economy, they’ve killed 200,000+ with opioids. They’ve just gone beyond the pale. The “they” I’m referring to are our elected officials who’re bought off by corporate donors like the ones running the CASE PAC, from the top of our government to the bottom. If you don’t trust them. If you know they’re self-serving. If you know they’re bought and paid for by Big Corproate America: Vote. Them. Out. It is time for a new day in America.
I want to know who to call on to answer social and economic problems for 99% of Americans. Which 1 percenter do I call? Is it Jeff Bezos & Guy Palumbo? Or city council? If you dudes are going to buy city councils, state governments, and the federal legislature, then I’ll come to your office to ask: Why do we have so many homeless on the entire west coast? Why do we not have everyone covered with healthcare in America? Who exactly is this massive inequality working for? Hey, Boardroom Election Buying Executives, we’ve got some questions. We want some answers. You’re not going to buy American democracy without answering a few questions about this malevolent behavior!
