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Scott has a new post on AI and money in politics. I'd like to take a step back and talk about how we got here.
In 2010, the Supreme Court ruled in Citizens United that there are essentially no constitutional limits on political spending and advertising. At the time, it was widely anticipated that this would turn American politics into the wild west of corruption, crony capitalism, and corporate propaganda. But in the years after the decision, the feared corporate catastrophe failed to materialize. Trump didn't win in 2016 because of corporate support. In the primary, he bragged that he was self-funding his campaign and so wasn't beholden to special interests. On the Democrat side, Bernie Sanders got a lot of milage out of constantly reminding people that he didn't have a SuperPac.
In 2019, Scott wrote the prophetic Too Much Dark Money in Almonds, in which he pointed out that wealthy actors are probably underspending on politics and then brainstormed ways to turn money into political influence. By 2022, we started to see serious attempts at using previously-unheard-of amounts of money to systematically affect the political process. Sam Bankman-Fried was too-clever-by-half donating money he didn't technically own, but Elon Musk's aquisition of Twitter ended wokeness overnight and likely won Trump the 2024 election. If Scott is to be believed, the cryptocurrency and AI industries are well on their way to fulfilling SBF's dream of rooting the state.
Why did it take 10+ years for this to happen? My hypothesis: cultural inertia (and shame).
Despite being purported as the main beneficiaries of Citizens United, big corporations weren't really trying to spend large sums of money on politics. Exxon Mobil didn't park an oil tanker full of cash in the Chesapeake waiting for the signal to shower Washington in oil money as part of their dastardly plan. That just wasn't how buisinesses operated. It took time to develop both a theoretical framework for how to turn an abritrarily large amount of money into political power (it's a lot more complicated than simply buying ads), and to develop a philosophical framework for why this isn't cartoonishly evil.
My biggest takeaway from the article (or rather, its comments section) is that advocacy groups shouldn't throw in their lot with a single party. If you join a big tent, you lose the other big tent. The NRA should help Dem candidates affiliated with Redneck Revolt/John Brown Gun Club defeat other Dem candidates. Heck, they should help them against GOP candidates that are not loudly pro-2A.
"Their manifesto says, 'We stand against white supremacy' and 'We stand against the nation-state and its forces which protect the bosses and the rich (police and military)'? You know what, we don't care! As long as it also says 'We stand for organized defense of our communities' and 'We are an aboveground militant formation' they will have our support"
There's not a single pro-gun democrat in the entire country who has a chance of winning a federal election. Zip. Zero. Nada.
There might be a handful who lie and say they're pro gun and turn around and vote for gun control every time anyways.
Edit: I shall eat my words. Slopgpt found that Mary Peltola is one and only Democrat to be against gun control in 2025.
A cursory search for "firearm" on Congress's website indicates a few more who may count.
Jared Golden of northern Maine joined 188 Republicans in cosponsoring a bill that would force all states to grant concealed-carry reciprocity.
Henry Cuellar of southern Texas joined 35 Republicans in cosponsoring a bill that would force the District of Columbia to grant concealed-carry reciprocity to congresspeople (but not to other people), and joined 17 Republicans in cosponsoring a bill that would "broaden the authority for certain law enforcement officers to carry concealed firearms across state lines".
These are, notably, the most conservative Democrat in the house(like praised by prolife orgs) and the rep from the reddest district to send a dem to congress.
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