Who are these men...

We all know who they are. We see their names in the news. The Koch brothers of Koch Industries, second largest privately held company in America. Sheldon Adelson, 78 year old CEO of the Las Vegas Sands. Donald Trump who took over the Trump Organization from his father and now heads the family business. These are the three leading and best known of the entrepreneurs who believe that they have every right to pervert the electorate system in order to ensure a favorable business environment for themselves. Their ostensible goal is to finance and harness a Republican conservative Congress, Senate, Supreme Court and Presidency that will produce a weak (also called "small") central government that will provide for the national defense and public order, but will expend little concern for the needs of the general public while ensuring a favorable business environment for "unfettered free enterprise", the bottom line principle driving the Presidential campaign of George Romney.

All of this sounds radical. Is there anyone who would dispute the players, their public statements or the direction of their massive expenditures to purchase public opinion through PACS and 501C4 organizations that produce the needed blanket advertising to sway the public discourse, create the language of acceptable opinion and produce a favorable vote? Crossroads GPS and its parent, American Crossroads, a PAC created by Karl Rove have been funded by JP Morgan, Wal-Mart, the Koch brothers and BP to create anti-Obama ads. Many thank the 2010 Citizens United Supreme Court ruling for opening the flood gates for corporate moguls to swamp the elections with money to distort the election process. These Super PACs often feature wonderful value laden names like Restore Our Future, Club for Growth Action, FreedomWorks for America and Endorse Liberty.

That ruling really did only open the flood gates. There has been a proliferation of huge well funded non-profits under the designation of 501C4 that spend the PAC money, protecting the donors from public disclosure. Is this what we mean by responsible free speech? A serious opposition would challenge the tax exempt status of these organizations with activities limited to the political promotion of political candidates or the denigration of the opposition candidate under a thinly veiled purpose of public education.

The real shocker is that Candidate Romney is depending upon his ability to swamp the Obama campaign with 2 to 1 spending, at least half of it by organizations that he will ostensibly have no direct say over their advertising strategies and content. In short, Candidate Romney is not interested in a level playing field for a fair election. He puts up a brave leader public image with a bully at his back. How will this man lead if he wins and in whose interests will he hold himself beholden?

In short, who are these men? Candidate George Romney is one of them and we know whose side he is on? That's the opinion of this Examiner.