Two authors are warning that the right has a secret "master plan" to help billionaires buy elections.
In a Rolling Stone commentary piece published Monday and adapted by David Sirota and Jared Jacang Maher's upcoming book "Master Plan: The Hidden Plot to Legalize Corruption in America," the authors describe how two lawsuits heading to the Supreme Court could eliminate "the last restrictions on campaign donations and obstructing law enforcement’s efforts to halt bribery."
One of those lawsuits is led by Vice President JD Vance, "aiming to reverse a 2001 Supreme Court ruling and eliminate restrictions on political parties’ coordinated spending with candidates."
The high court's Citizens United decision set the "precedent that empowers oligarchs to buy elections," which conservative groups hope to expand, even though many Americans would argue that money can corrupt the political process, the authors argue.
"If those rules are killed off, party committees could become pass-through conduits for big donors to circumvent donation limits and deliver much larger payments in support of lawmakers who can reward them with government favors," the authors write.
"As we recount in our new book 'Master Plan,' the Citizens United case was the culmination of conservatives’ 50-year master plan to deregulate the campaign finance system and legalize corruption. What started as an incendiary memo from soon-to-be Supreme Court Justice Lewis Powell became one ruling equating money with constitutionally protected speech and another extending personhood rights to corporations," the authors write.
This "master plan," according to the authors, would further make it "increasingly impossible to prosecute public corruption cases."
"In essence, they’re asking justices to believe a bank CEO’s donation to a political party coordinating with a lawmaker’s campaign can in no way influence how that lawmaker drafts banking legislation," according to the authors.
The authors also argue there are still a few ways for "this nightmare to be stopped," and that's by making anti-corruption a focus in politics.
"Yes, in buying elections, packing the courts, and eliciting precedents legalizing corruption, the master planners have created the democracy crisis, pushing America one step closer to the kleptocratic death spiral of history’s collapsing empires," the authors write.