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Mike Bloomberg; Am I running for office or Despot when I spend $65 million dollars?

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bio_bloombergTrying to understand the political process…

 

Here’s a thought for you. When you put two men on a race track you demand that neither one of them have taken steroids or any other illegal substances that may give one of them a leg up on another. Similarly you demand that they start at the same place and that both are afforded the appropriate running gear that would seemingly make this a fair race. Of course when it comes to politics for some reason this all goes out the window. Welcome to the reality that ensures that only despots (no matter how likeable or photogenic they are) ever stay in power…

According to the dictionary a despot is someone with absolute unlimited power. Now it may be true Mayor Bloomberg does not have unlimited power to do everything he pleases but it does seem he has unlimited power and advantages to making sure that he always stays in power. And as pleasant as that may be for Mike, we wonder if this ultimately poses a problem for democracy when Mike can effectively (through the good fortune that he is a billionaire) repeal laws (he repealed the law that limited him to two terms) and outspend the nearest political candidate 20 to 1.

Take the current case of the upcoming mayoral elections where Mayor Bloomberg to date has spent $65 million dollars while his democratic rival- William C Thompson Jr has only been able to come up with $3.8 million dollars. Does this suggest that at the end of the day who gets to run the mayors office is essentially that person who has access to all the money as opposed to access to all the ideas and notions that would abide in a the true tenements of political office?

Of course maybe that’s just it, maybe we are all kidding ourselves when we like to state that we live in a democracy when in fact where we really live is a oligarchy where power only exists for the few especially those with concentrated financial bases.

In any event the Mayor has outspent Thompson heavily and although it’s all unsavory (considering Bloomberg has more opportunities to get his message to more people) it doesn’t necessarily mean he will win or be a good mayor if re elected. After all sometimes people see through what you’re trying to sell them and may just once in a while think with their heads rather than the emotional hyperbole that most political ads are spun on.

Once in a while it would be nice to actually behave democratically because it just gets boring living in tyrannical neuroses…

Bloomberg Spares No Expense in Mayoral Race

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