Rich guy Shel Adelson, a casino magnate with properties mostly in Macau but also in Las Vegas, has really gotten under the skin of McCain, so much so that he's questioned whether the money Adelson has thrown at Republicans and conservative SuperPACs is legal.
He has a point. Most of his profits come from his properties in Macau, so in effect foreign money is being used in elections -- at least in one sense. Most multinational companies in the US take advantage of the occasional corporate tax holiday to repatriate profits back to the US. And they too, contribute towards candidates. Does that mean they're also violating the law?
I think McCain is stretching it quite a lot, but his main point is to highlight the threat to the political system, when billionaires like Adelson, promise to throw $100M into a campaign. Adelson's spending could plausibly count for 5% of conservative funding in the Presidential campaign.
To the core of McCain's frustration, is that the Citizens United ruling opened the gates wide open to Plutocracy in the United States, calling it, "the most misguided, naive, uninformed, egregious decision of the United States Supreme Court, I think, in the 21st century."
If a single person can threaten to contribute 5% of all conservative funds in the Presidential campaign, that HAS to be a sign of Plutocracy at work in the United States, yes?
Oddly enough, Adelson has previously said, "I'm against very wealthy people attempting to influence elections. But as long as it's doable, I'm going to do it."
Talk about embracing your hypocrisy.
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