During an appearance on the Shawn Ryan Show, Cenk Uygur said something monumentally stupid. And of course, the right wing site RealClearPolitics immediately picked up on it.
"By the time you get to the general election, it’s robot A versus robot B, and they’ve robbed you of all your choices," he said. "It’s actually the same way it works in China and Iran."
"The Chinese have a Politburo like the Soviets used to, and they vote within themselves — this very small group — and give you two options that both serve the Politburo, and then they have fake elections," he explained. "Iran does the same thing. The mullahs vote internally, give you two fake options that both serve the ayatollah and the mullahs, and then people have a fake election."
"Here in America, the donors select who is going to win the primaries by giving them all the money. Once you’ve got $5 million in a primary, good night, Irene."
"In fact, in America, the person with more money wins the election 95% of the time," he said.
There you have it. A guy who claims to be a liberal just compared U.S. elections to those in China and Iran. Holy cow!!!! Way to undermine our democracy Cenk.
The issue of money in political campaigns is something that extreme leftists have been exploiting for years now. So let me take a moment to unpack it once again.
According to current law, corporations cannot donate directly to a political campaign and individuals are limited to no more than $3,500. Where the big money comes into play is with donations to SuperPacs, because there are no limits. But campaign finance law also says that SuperPacs are not allowed to coordinate with campaigns (although that line in the sand is being muddied quite a bit).
With that said, Uygur is mostly correct in suggesting that "the person with more money wins the election 95% of the time." But in order to draw any conclusions about that it is important to know the source of the funds.
As an example, we could look at the recent election of Zohran Mamdani. Due to the mayor's ability to raise small dollar donations, which are matched by the city's public campaign finance system, the Mamdani campaign was able raise significantly more money than Andrew Cuomo's campaign.
Where big money donors came into play is that billionaires contributed $40 million to SuperPacs supporting Cuomo - giving him a big edge in the total amount raised. Nevertheless, Cuomo lost.
I am reminded of the fact that Elon Musk gave over $20 million to his SuperPac in order to buy a seat on Wisconsin's Supreme Court. It didn't work. The effectiveness of that kind of money is a risk...one that a lot of billionaires seem willing to take.
It's also important to keep in mind that money donated directly to a campaign is not only WAY more effective, it is an important signal that the candidate on the receiving end has broad grassroots support. As Wesley Lowery put it: "A candidate who is compelling enough to get you to open your wallet should, in theory, also be able to get you to head to the ballot box for him or her." So a candidate who raises more money from those donors signals that they are likely to win.
All of that is playing out in Michigan's Democratic Senate primary between Mallory McMorrow, Abdul El-Sayed, and Haley Stevens. According to the most recent FEC report, McMorrow is outraising her opponents. But even more importantly, over half of the donations to her campaign came from people who gave less than $200. For El-Sayed and Stevens it was 26% and 14% respectively. In other words, grassroots donors are breaking heavily for McMorrow. If that trend continues, she will likely win the primary.
I'll say it once again: those who are suggesting that Democratic primaries are rigged, or that they resemble elections in China/Iran, are lying to you. In doing to, they are undermining our democracy every bit as much as Donald Trump.
So get out and vote in the upcoming primaries - and donate when/where you can.
I'll leave you with a piece of advice from Molly Ivins that has always guided my vote: "In the primaries vote with your heart. In the general, go with your head."
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