What does oligarchy mean? In the third episode of “Timothy Snyder Speaks,” historian and author Timothy Snyder explores the meaning of oligarchy, where it came from, how it endangers us — and how it connects the United States and Russia.
The Supreme Court’s Billion-Dollar Mistake
According to the Brennan Center report, over the five years since these decisions, super PACs have spent more than one billion dollars on federal election campaigns. And because these organizations are free of any limits, they have proved to be magnets for those who have the resources to spend lavishly to further their interests. About 60 percent of that billion dollars has come from just 195 people.
Jeb Bush and the “Invisible” Primary: Winning Big Donors
The real challenge for Mr. Bush is negotiating the competing pressures of the so-called “invisible” and actual primaries. The invisible primary is the competition for the support of party officials and donors with the influence and money necessary to propel a candidate toward the party’s nomination. A candidate who wins the invisible primary decisively almost always goes on to win the nomination.
.. The catch, of course, is that the source of Mr. Bush’s appeal among the Republican donor class is a message and tone that often seems close to attacking conservatives as ideologues.
.. Mr. Bush could still win even if Tea Party supporters opposed him by a wide margin. Mr. Romney managed to steer down the same narrow path to victory in 2012. It’s a path that starts by consolidating the establishment wing of the party in the invisible primary. It ends by winning a protracted fight against an underfunded conservative opponent who can’t break through in the delegate-rich blue states that are often needed to win the party’s nomination, even though the party struggles to win them in presidential elections.
.. It is an arduous path to victory. But candidates with the favor of the establishment have won nearly every recent nominating contest for a reason: It brings big advantages. And the Republican establishment doesn’t appear to have too many other choices. If top G.O.P. donors are indeed choosing between Mr. Bush, Mr. Christie and Mr. Romney, they might not have a better option than Mr. Bush.
Agreement To Increase Max Donation Size from $97,200 to $776,600
After successfully pushing legislation in March to abolish public financing for party conventions, some Republicans had become worried about how they would pay for their 2016 convention, scheduled to be held in Cleveland, in Mr. Boehner’s home state, Ohio. Some feared that the party would have to scale back the convention, losing clout and prestige to the big-money outside groups that are playing bigger roles in campaigns.
.. All in all, the new accounts would vastly expand the amount that wealthy donors could give to party committees. Under current rules, the most one individual could donate to party committees in a given year totals about $97,200. Should the new budget agreement be signed by President Obama, that amount would skyrocket to $776,600, or $1.56 million over a two-year election cycle.
.. Democrats and Republicans alike said on Friday that even if the new rules bolstered the influence of large donors, they would also improve disclosure and accountability by pushing more donor dollars into party committees, rather than into “super PACs” and other less-regulated outside groups.