Other than Donald Trump, who Congressman Tom Reed has endorsed, the greatest threat to our democracy may be the corrupting influence of practically unlimited money that wealthy individuals and corporations can donate to Super Pacs. One of the biggest poster boys for demonstrating the necessity of cleaning up our political system is multi-billionaire Sheldon Adelson.
Adelson is a close personal friend of Bibi Netanyahu's with a rather colorful history. He proved he was an Israel Firster in 2010 by declaring that he wished he had served in the Israeli military instead of the U.S. military and that he hoped his son would become a sniper for the IDF. In 2013 he said that the U.S. should soften Iran up for nuclear negotiations by dropping a nuclear weapon on an Iranian desert. He said we should follow that up with a threat to nuke Tehran if they didn't give us everything we wanted. And in 2014 he acknowledged that Israel was losing its democratic nature when he said, "So Israel won't be a democratic state, so what?" He wasn't bothered by this because democracy is not mentioned in the Torah. He spent over $150 million in 2012 trying to buy the presidency for Mitt Romney and several Senate candidates and vowed to double this amount in 2016. And Adelson has a local connection--he met with Tom Reed in 2011 while Reed was on an AIPAC funded political junket to Israel.
Voters should keep these disturbing facts in mind when asking Reed the following questions. Will you condemn Adelson unequivocally for advocating that we nuke Iran? Have you accepted campaign money either directly from Adelson or indirectly through a PAC he contributes to, and will you refuse to accept such money in the future? Do you believe that some citizens should be more equal than others in getting a say in determining U.S. policy simply because they can contribute hundreds of millions of dollars to political campaigns? Should politicians be indebted to billionaires whose primary allegiance is to another country? Will you support a constitutional amendment for campaign finance reform so that all citizens have an equal say in how the government is run and ensure that politicians are not indebted to a small number of billionaires who do not necessarily have our best interests at heart?
Tom Reed's opponent, John Plumb, has declared his support for a Constitutional Amendment to reverse Citizens United as one of four steps for fixing our broken political system. This will reduce the vast sums of money corrupting our system. Will Tom Reed join John Plumb in his fight against Citizens United?
