Sanders may think that campaign finance is the primary issue but imho it’s not. The means we use to communicate is privately owned and at least one of the companies is wobbly. Twitter could be acquired by a Chinese company. Or go out of business. Or unilaterally change the way it works. We, mere users, would have no recourse. So far they have been exemplary corporate citizens, but there’s nothing that says it has to stay that way, esp with their stock price so low, and going lower.
I think we have our theme for the next decade. You think Finance is bad…wait until Tech starts getting exposed. Tech plays a facade of “Changing the World” and taking power away from the media giants and being lean and agile and innovating but as tech gets bigger and as it leaves the basement of Linux nerds around the world and enters Madison Avenue, it’s going to become more and more powerful. Almost every single American has a smartphone with a social media application owned in some way by 3 companies (Google, Facebook and Twitter). That’s a lot of power. That kind of power can sway an election. If Facebook was behind a single candidate, it would be absolutely catastrophic for any one else running.
Remember, the most valuable companies in the world are Google and Apple. Not J.P. Morgan, Not Bank of America and not Exxon (our theme of the 80/90s was oil & energy)
Americans can’t put their attention behind more than 2 things at once. Right now, it’s Terrorism and Finance as it has been for the last 15 years. I think one of those will be replaced by Tech and the corruption and power it has. I just hope the kind of content we’ve seen on Valleywag the last 10 years is ready to be put on CNN. Tech CEOs better start hiring publicists.