Bloomberg bankrolls a social-media army

Re:Bloomberg bankrolls a social-media army by vanusa on Wednesday February 19, 2020 @02:47PM (#22369290)

Many here seem upset at the idea that Bloomberg is spending a lot of his own money to run for president.

No - it's not that he's spending his own money. But rather, how he's spending it.

And they're not "upset". They're calmly pointing out the obvious: that this kind of attempted influence buying is profoundly dystopian and antidemocratic.

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Re:Bloomberg bankrolls a social-media army by pjlegato on Wednesday February 19, 2020 @02:53PM (#22369350)

All of the other candidates are also doing that; there's nothing special about how Bloomberg is spending his money. The others are doing the same, but with other people's money -- people who will now expect to wield influence behind the scenes. Is that not worse?

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Re:Bloomberg bankrolls a social-media army by danenania on Wednesday February 19, 2020 @03:13PM (#22369550)

Perhaps stating the obvious here, but if the money comes in small increments from millions of people who are broadly representative of the population (ahem, Bernie Sanders, ahem), then the politician will be beholden to the people they're actually supposed to be beholden to: the voters.

If we allow the extremely wealthy to have an extreme advantage in campaigns, we'll end up with a government that only serves their interests. Why would we expect anything else?

The solution to this is public funding of elections that puts all candidates on an equal playing field, or at least overturning Citizens United and only allowing direct donations under the maximum including from yourself.

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Re:Bloomberg bankrolls a social-media army by vanusa on Wednesday February 19, 2020 @03:34PM (#22369768)

All of the other candidates are also doing that; there's nothing special about how Bloomberg is spending his money.

Hiring dedicated trolls at $2500 a month, you mean? Do you have a source for that?

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Re:Bloomberg bankrolls a social-media army by akhilcacharya on Wednesday February 19, 2020 @03:30PM (#22369719)

> profoundly dystopian and antidemocratic

I don't think it's antidemocratic. Bernie Sanders is doing just fine with a fraction of the ad spending. Ultimately, nobody is being forced to vote for him. Super Tuesday will be the first test, and it's very possible that Bernie will sweep all of the big states himself.

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