• reddig33@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    0
    ·
    5 months ago

    It amazes me that primaries are held this late in the year. It’s only four months or so until the election.

    • givesomefucks@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      0
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      5 months ago

      The Dem presidential primary still has like two more months.

      Biden and his pick for DNC chair set the date, they could have made it whenever.

      They choose after the deadline to get on all 50 ballots for some reason.

  • Tryptaminev@lemm.ee
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    0
    ·
    5 months ago

    Despite his efforts, Dolan’s message did not gain enough traction. His campaign, funded largely by personal loans, couldn’t match Ocasio-Cortez’s $8 million war chest.

    You people are living in an oligarchy and “who has more money for this season” being a perfectly normal news bit outside of popular sports is completely insane.

    • TransplantedSconie@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      0
      ·
      5 months ago

      You realize that “you people” includes you, correct?

      Or are the mega rich treated just like everyone else where you are?

      If so, where is this magical land of fairness?

        • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          0
          arrow-down
          1
          ·
          5 months ago

          Eh… There are a variety of end-runs around this mechanism.

          Hiring politicians on as lobbyists or allowing friends and family to sit on private run boards and trusts can create a back channel for money to flow into a politician’s pockets. Public money can be funneled into private profits for which the supporting politicians are also stockholders. And politicians can receive discounted/free services from friendly private sector constituencies. FOX News, the classic example, is a multi-billion dollar network dedicated to running Republican-friendly media. But when corporate lobbyists and political strategists can be found everywhere from the boards of NPR/PBS to the guest chairs of MSNBC to the editorial rooms of the WaPo/WSJ/NYT, there’s really no safe spaces left.

          You can mitigate the direct “bag of cash for favors” effect that, say, John Boehner cutting tobacco lobbyist checks on the floor of the House has produced in the past. But you can’t keep public sector administrators from finding ways to receive kickbacks via private sector channels unless you completely divorce these institutions.

          • aesthelete@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            0
            ·
            5 months ago

            Eh… There are a variety of end-runs around this mechanism.

            There are any number of hypothetical end-runs around just about anything you can think of, that doesn’t make protections, mechanisms, controls, or safeties useless.

            In the US, political bribery is nearly 100% legal. I’d rather have some hoops for corrupt officials to jump through. We don’t even make them break a sweat in this country.

            • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              0
              arrow-down
              1
              ·
              5 months ago

              There are any number of hypothetical end-runs

              Not even hypothetical. We just had the SCOTUS kick down the door on legal bribery in Snyder v United States.

              I’d rather have some hoops for corrupt officials to jump through

              I mean, if we’ve got a magic lamp I can do better than a few hoops. But the system is of the corrupt, by the corrupt, for the corrupt.

              At some point, you’re forced to recognized the farce of democracy at work.

              • aesthelete@lemmy.world
                link
                fedilink
                arrow-up
                0
                ·
                edit-2
                5 months ago

                IIRC, people were talking about places in this thread that aren’t the US.

                As stated, political bribery in the US is nearly 100% legal. You can even study it in school and make a career out of it.