Lindberg: It’s a myth that the Democrat Party is the party of the poor and downtrodden

By Stu Lindberg

A powerful myth exists among the citizenry of Vermont. The myth is that the Republican party is the party of the rich and powerful and the Democrat Party is the party of the poor and downtrodden. Real statistics compiled by the watchdog organization OpenSecrets.org debunks this myth.

In the 2017-2018 political season, itemized contributions to Vermont parties and candidates so far total $2,268,885. Some $1,615,385, or 76.1 percent, of these contributions went to Democrats. In comparison, a paltry $345,123, or 16.3 percent, went to Republicans.

Career politician Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., a self proclaimed defender of working families, advocate for income redistribution and owner of three homes, has $8,013,016 to wage a campaign against Lawrence Zupan, his Republican challenger. Zupan has $6,438 dollars. About 96 percent of Bernie’s campaign contributions come from outside of Vermont, while barely 4 percent comes from Vermonters. How can Bernie possibly represent the interests of Vermonters when he has so much money coming from outside of Vermont?

Career politician and Vermont congressman Peter Welch, D-Vt., who accepts money from opiate pharmaceutical companies, has $2,101,534 in his campaign war chest. Much of this comes from big corporations and unions, and 62 percent of Welch’s contributions come from out of state. Again, the same question for Bernie should be asked of Peter Welch: If big money buys elections and power, how can Welch be working in the best interests of Vermonters?

I could not confirm through the state’s campaign finance reporting system how much Welch’s Republican opponent, Anya Tynio, has for political funds. My guess is that she has not filed a report because she has no money. Independent Cris Ericson, reliable defender of liberty, anti-corruption activist and marijuana legalization proponent, informed me that she has zero dollars to mount a campaign against Peter Welch.

Vermont Democrats very successfully shake the Vermont timbers with the rallying cry of “get money out of politics.” Will the absolute hypocrisy of this cry ever make a difference to the Vermont voter? Vermonters reading this would be better informed in their voting decisions if they were to follow the money. You can do this by using the state campaign finance website.

I am voting for candidates whose decision making is not swayed by outside special interest groups that have big money. I am going to continue to vote for the underdog.

Stu Lindberg writes occasional commentary for True North Reports. He lives in Cavendish, Vermont.

Image courtesy of Public domain

5 thoughts on “Lindberg: It’s a myth that the Democrat Party is the party of the poor and downtrodden

  1. Sanders and Welch. Most of their money comes from out of State. What a surprise. They have money to burn. Just another reason to have term limits to get rid of these career politicians.
    Big money controls who’s in office and always will until we have term limits. You notice that none of Vermont’s legislature ever brings up that topic.

  2. Great article Stu, we agree whole heartedly. These huge war chests do nothing but keep other people from running and others from donating to campaigns because of the steep disparity of resources. It’s one of the reasons we will be pushing for Term limits in Vermont from Select board to Governor. We want to tax out of state PAC money by 90% if we can’t eliminate it, it’s just a legal way to bribe people, where they can’t trace it either.

    Our little state is run by lobbyists and well healed out of state interests. The marijuana group gave more to their supporters than the republican party gives to the entire body of candidates down ticket. (this is an educated guess based upon a sampling of past candidates and current).

    We have planned parent hood PAC offering money to candidates if they agree 100% with their survey. The Green Mountain Party is in 100% agreement that all children should be planned for and started in loving family that has figured out how they are going to care and support this new person in their lives. But the survey was skewed to only one option that’s acceptable. It’s no longer 1950, there should be no unwanted child born in Vermont, yet according to them 50% of all Vermont births are unplanned. So…..that means their strategy isn’t working to well huh? We let them know first thing we have no interest in their PAC money.

    Other surveys we’ve gotten are a mirror image of the Democratic platform, so my question is who owns who? Does the DNC own these groups or visa versa? It would be great to have a disclosure that exposes all questionnaires that go to people running for office. Now wouldn’t that be interesting? The Vermont citizen might find it very, very enlightening.

    Neil Johnson, Candidate, Washington -7 House, Green Mountain Party

  3. This has been one of my biggest issues related to our elected officials who are supposed to represent Vermonters. Why should money from out of the state be allowed to influence Vermont politics? If we want to get the money out of politics we should demand that candidates for elected office in Vermont should be barred from accepting out of state money from groups and individuals aligned with national issue agendas. These races are already rigged for the incumbent office holder who is in a position to meet with groups as a result of his or her political office. This allows the incumbent to amass a huge war chest of money thereby insuring re-election through ad money to bombard the airwaves with negative ads against an already under funded challenger. There are two choices to level the political playing field. Term limits and restricting out side money from state races. Of course the politicians won’t cut their own money flow so we as citizens have to do it for them. One way is the Convention of States to correct and limit the power of the federal government. I believe 28 states have already voted for the Convention. It is time to tame the federal government and bring the power back to the citizens.This is contained in Article V of the constitution. The link below is a guide to the convention. I hope you take the time to read it. WE THE PEOPLE!

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