Anheuser-Busch heiress Trudy Busch Valentine is now trying to buy the Democratic Party nomination for the US Senate in Missouri. She represents everything that is wrong about the Democratic Party these days. Instead of debating with her opponents, she is now flooding the state with $4 million in TV ads to try and buy the nomination.
This also represents everything that is wrong with the political process these days. The Supreme Court did the exact same thing they said they were against – legislating from the bench. They claimed that money is free speech, there is no such thing as corporate corruption, and that wealthy people like Busch-Valentine can flood the airwaves with as much money as she wants. Reforming our broken political system requires us to pass a Constitutional Amendment ending Citizens United and allowing Congress and the states to pass reasonable campaign finance restrictions on campaigns.
Back in the 1950’s, Missouri Senate candidates like James Kem and Stuart Symington both prided themselves on constituent service, as did the late Congressman Jerry Litton. Mr. Kem and Mr. Symington were on opposite sides of the political aisle, but they both cared about what their constituents had to say. Now, most politicians at the national level spend most of their time calling donors in their spare time.
Trudy Busch-Valentine also owns stock in defense contractors, Big Pharma, and Wall Street banks. What is there to stop her from engaging in insider trading once she gets elected, just like Nancy Pelosi?
And her cutting and running from debates is typical of her plan to dodge voters. Riverfront Times reports that Indivisible St. Louis, a progressive group that tries to get Democrats elected, tried to organize a coffee and candidate event for her. Her reps would decline, saying, “She’s not available for that. I’m sorry.”
The same article reports that Chesterfield Township Democrats, which doesn’t endorse candidates but tries to get them in front of voters, had a similar experience. They booked an event for May 10th. Lucas Kunce showed up. Valentine didn’t. They invited her to a meeting in June. She declined.
Wes Shoemyer, writing in the Missouri Times, notes a St. Louis Post-Dispatch article that quotes Valentine as saying she will spend much of the primary focusing on Democratic voters in the state’s major population areas. So sorry – she cuts and runs from rural voters as well.
“Independent farmers are getting screwed by Big Ag. The meatpackers are stealing our profits. We’ve got foreign conglomerates destroying the land. We’re getting hammered by fertilizer prices set by price gouging corporations. It’s getting harder and harder to be an independent farmer. And for rural Democrats, the sad reality is that it’s leaders in both parties who’ve helped make it all happen,” writes Mr. Shoemyer. But don’t ask people like Busch-Valentine to care. Given that she owns stocks in defense contractors, she would likely help carry out Joe Biden’s plan to stick it to the Russians at the expense of Rural America and sleepwalk into a four front war with Russia, China, Iran, and North Korea.
This is not a liberal vs. conservative war. This is about showing up vs. not showing up. Mr. Shoemyer had a proven track record of winning as a Democrat in Rural America while championing the left. Pat Danner, a conservative Democrat who won handily here, did so because she always showed up, always responded to constituents, and bucked the trend of the area reverting red as a result. We appreciate all candidates, regardless of party affiliation, who have shown up this cycle.
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