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'Unlimited resources' are exactly the thing we don't need shaping a democratic election. Shame on you and anyone else seeking to work for such a firm. Ill take
by Jamwinner 7y ago
'Unlimited resources' are exactly the thing we don't need shaping a democratic election. Shame on you and anyone else seeking to work for such a firm. Ill take my downvotes, this is bedrock ethics.
- sbuccini 7y agoUnfortunately, this is our reality. I’d highly recommend Dark Money by Jane Mayer if you haven’t read it already. Of course, this same machinery has already been built time and time again in the Valley.
- adventured 7y ago> Unfortunately, this is our reality. It's not. Sanders is going to stomp Bloomberg in the primary, with a tiny fraction of the resources behind him that Bloomberg has and a magnitude more of the public support. Trump won while spending a lot less money than what Clinton vaporized in her election campaign. He decimated the formidable Bush money machine right out of the gate, humiliating Jeb Bush as a weak candidate before the first inning was over. This is increasingly the era of populism. It's raging all over the planet right now (Trump in the US, Brexit in UK, SD in Sweden, riots in Iran and everywhere else, and so on). The establishment candidates, such as Bloomberg, can't win under any scenario no matter how much money they burn. Sanders and Warren are the only real competing candiates to Trump, as they're both populists. If the Democrats make the mistake of running Biden, he'll be embarrassed in the general election. Spending $500m vs $1 billion versus $2 billion will not matter in the least in 2020.
- sbuccini 7y agoYou're missing the big picture if you're just focusing on the Presidential election. Jane Mayer does a great job of showing how money pervades politics at all levels, down to the most local judicial races. I've also seen it firsthand. It's also important to remember that Hawkfish =/= Bloomberg 2020 and their output will be available to Democratic candidates up and down the ballot.
- chance_state 7y agoI want to add a +1 to this. It's shameful that talented engineers would spend their productive years building a dystopian future because "the comp is very, very good" or for other equally immoral and unethical reasons. It's "I got mine, good luck getting yours" v2. I don't think history will look kindly on these folks.