PACman PROPAGANDA ???

PACman PROPAGANDA ???  

I remember hearing about Russian propaganda when I was in the sixth grade: Communist newspapers deliberately printing false information to manipulate the masses, along with T.V. programming aimed at limiting knowledge of global realities. I also remember being shocked that citizens were prevented by their governments from reading, hearing, or knowing truths and facts.  Now, the people of the U.S. are experiencing firsthand the power of this same propaganda.

 I am not talking about Russian interference in our 2016 elections, which was an overt use of propaganda articles loaded onto social media to influence our voters. Our political process has been hijacked by U.S. corporate money and influence through the covert use of propaganda under the sanctioned umbrella of PACs (Political Action Committees) masquerading as non-profit organizations under the Supreme Court’s ‘Citizens United’ decision to allow corporations greater influence than individual voters in elections.

Day after day contrived public service news ads are streamed across our screens sponsored by seeming citizens’ groups with names like, ‘Judicial Crisis Network,’ ‘Keep The Promise to Veterans,’  ‘Concerned Taxpayers for America,’ and thousands of other PACs with similar monikers. The typical viewer is deliberately misled by these sponsors to deduce that these are non-partisan citizens groups freely advocating their positions. Sadly, this is not reality. These PACs are nothing more than ordained lobbying groups with preferential tax benefits.

Welcome to today’s world of Super-PACs, or ‘factions’ as they were originally referred to by James Madison in his 1787 Federalist 10 paper.  These are special interest groups formed under non-profit tax laws allowing unlimited, non-disclosed donations by corporations and billionaires for the sole purpose of influencing public opinion by way of erroneous propaganda provided to voters.  For instance, ‘Keep The Promise to Veterans’ is sponsored by a group of energy corporations in Houston, Texas for the sole purpose of getting Ted Cruz re-elected to the U.S. Senate so that their pro-oil/pro-fracking legislative agendas in Congress are guaranteed. With the recent de-regulations and the lack of bureaucratic personnel to ensure compliance with tax laws, these PACs are rarely audited or exposed by the IRS.  The result is our rigged congressional system where our elected representatives are first and foremost beholden to their benefactors, not to the voters. 

The answer?  First, make every PAC register as a ‘ .PAC’ instead of a ‘.ORG’ so that these organizations are clearly identified to the public on every post and ad.  Second, amend the IRS code immediately to have a separate designation for Political Action Committees, differentiating them from actual non-profit organizations like the Salvation Army offering services to the public and requiring full disclosure of all donations and donors.  Third, set limits on corporate giving to PACS, just as there are limits on individual’s donations to political campaigns.  If the Supreme Court deems them equal in politics, then make the giving limits respectively equivalent.  Lastly, establish a new branch of The Library of Congress to be the non-partisan fact-checking mechanism for the United States available online to all citizens. The playing field is not level if money can buy political outcomes. It is time our government confronts today's social media and tech culture by enacting legislation to prevent the power of PACS and propaganda from trumping personal principles in Washington and further corrupting our political process.