In CT, President Obama Warns of "Corporate Takeover of our Democracy"

In Connecticut, President Obama Warns of "Corporate Takeover of our Democracy"

TRANSCRIPT:

This is a tough election season.  People are hurting and they are understandably frustrated.  And a lot of them are scared.  And a lot of them are anxious.  And that means that even when people don't have ideas, if they've got enough money behind them, they may be able to convince some folks that, you know what, just cast a protest vote, throw the bums out.  That's a mentality that has an appeal.  And you can't blame folks for feeling that way sometime.  But that's not a future for our country, a country that's more divided, that's more unequal, that's less dynamic, where we're falling behind in everything from investment in infrastructure to investment in R&D.  That's not a vision for the future.

And if that's not a future you accept for this nation, if that's not the future you want for your kids and for your grandkids, then we are asking you for help in this election.

Because if you don't think the stakes are large -- and I want you to consider this -- right now, all across the country, special interests are planning and running millions of dollars of attack ads against Democratic candidates.  Because last year, there was a Supreme Court decision called Citizens United.  They're allowed to spend as much as they want without ever revealing who's paying for the ads.  That's exactly what they're doing.  Millions of dollars.  And the groups are benign-sounding: Americans for Prosperity.  Who's against that?

Or Committee for Truth in Politics.  Or Americans for Apple Pie.  Moms for Motherhood.  I made those last two up.

None of them will disclose who's paying for these ads.  You don't know if it's a Wall Street bank.  You don't know if it's a big oil company.  You don't know if it's an insurance company.  You don't even know if it's a foreign-controlled entity.

In some races, they are spending more money than the candidates.  Not here because here the candidate is spending a lot of money.

They're spending more money than the parties.  They want to take Congress back and return to the days where lobbyists wrote the laws.  It is the most insidious power grab since the monopolies of the Gilded Age.  That's happening right now.  So there's a lot of talk about populist anger and grassroots.  But that's not what's driving a lot of these elections.

We tried to fix this, but the leaders of the other party wouldn't even allow it to come up for a vote.  They want to keep the public in the dark.  They want to serve the special interests that served them so well over the last 19 months.
 We will not let them.  We are not about to allow a corporate takeover of our democracy.  We're not about to go back to the days when special interests took advantage of Main Street families.  We're not going to go back to the days when insurance companies wrote the rules that let you languish without health care because you had a preexisting condition.  We're not going to go back to the exact same agenda we had before I took office.

• Category

  News & Politics

[dustysheeks]

I am very fortunate (and proud) to be represented by a Democrat who still votes on the People's behalf- Wisconsin's own Russ Feingold. Though, most Democrats and Republicans are essentially two factions of the Corporate Party of America, dialing for corporate dollars and voting on corporations' behalf. We The People need to take back control of our government. We need to demand more of our representatives, and/or consider the third party candidates in local, state, and federal elections.

[Amiaworld]

The USA is a Republic. That's a fact. I know it can be confusing with people insisting that we're a democracy..but there is a difference between the two. A very important difference.

Should I explain it to you?

[lightlyone]

Corporate control of government. Isn't that a major definition of fascism?

[Evil Bastard]

In addition to "corporate takeover of democracy," now we have "socialist takeover of liberty"

Thanks, Fuhrer Obama, for openly bypassing congress, and over 200 years of rule of law.

Fuck you, all you idiots who cheered like zombies "Oh, yes, please take our rights away! Yes! yes! YES!"

[notverysmartbuddy]

This guy has said the same thing over and over for four years, yet he has not done anything about what he is preaching. Am I the only one who notices? What a slimeball!

[dustysheeks]

Not exactly. ontheissues(dot)org/senate/Rus­sell_Feingold(dot)htm

[BlackRepublican2010]

And now he's out because he's a left wing hack who did nothing but be a sheep to obama.

[dustysheeks]

Right. I wrote that while he was still in.

[BlackRepublican2010]

No your not. They knocked that bum out. The irony of this video is Obummer didn't want public financing in 2008 so he could spend unlimited amounts of dollars to win the election but now that everyone can do it? Noooo Obama is that special! LOL

[grotonunited]

FUCK OBAMA.

[makeiteasyable]

yep republic is very diff. from democracy.