Fool and his money

| 12:01 pm EDT August 5, 2021
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In the news the last few weeks we are hearing a lot about the massive fundraising haul by the guy who lost the 2020 presidential election. And he is not alone. There are many other smaller PACs that have attracted millions in donations from the drooling base by reciting the Big Lie.

But the funds raised by these PACs are not being spent on litigation efforts, lobbying, or campaign ads. Instead, they are largely “reinvested” back into robocalls and email spamming operations, or paid out as consulting fees to the people running them. Most surprising is that all of this is apparently legal. PACs are loosely regulated in how they spend the funds raised, and can often claim the robocalls themselves are political outreach. And so the scam continues.

This is an issue that congress should address with laws that better regulate PACs, require reporting of large donors, and eliminate dark money from politics. Our democracy cannot survive if it can be influenced by nefarious foreign actors and domestic oligarchs alike.

But there is a silver lining. You see, these corrupt PACs are taking money out of the pockets of people who lack the critical thinking skills to recognize that the last election was not stolen. The rabid mobs are pouring their disposable income into a slush fund that exists for the sole pleasure of a malignant narcissist. He will not spend any of it to help a candidate for office, or to promote a political point of view, or even to help keep his failed co-conspirators out of prison.

So I say, let the grift proceed. The Big Lie has already diverted $100M out of Republican party coffers and into Donald Trump’s ample pockets. May he repeat that awesome feat many times over between now and next November!