JACQUELINE MARCUS FOR BUZZFLASH AT TRUTHOUT

The powerhouse super PAC contributions to both candidates went down on record as the largest money-ball race in history. Election time is Christmas at Wal-Mart for the corporate networks. You could probably buy a resort home in Hawaii for the cost of three presidential prime time campaign ads.

The question is did all that money influence voters? Let’s just say that corporate money doesn’t have quite the power of persuasion the oligarchs thought it would have. Arguably, the Supreme Court's 2010 Citizens United ruling is eroding our democracy. Nevertheless, Americans are pretty good at seeing through deceptive political ads such as the blatantly false and sleazy Romney ad that accused President Obama of shipping Jeep Chrysler jobs to China.

This 2012 election proved a few encouraging lessons: that Democrats who are enormously outspent by their Republican opponents can still win elections. So what’s a sold-out industrial Republican to do in light of this revelation? “Independent conservative groups are going to have to come to terms with the fact that they spent more than $700 million -- 70 percent of all of the reported independent spending in the 2012 election -- and walked away with little to show for it.” (Paul Blumenthal, HuffingtonPost.com)

Why do they have little to show for it? As discussed by MSNBC’s political team and acknowledged even at FOXTV, the Republican Party is a shrinking dinosaur party of old white male racists (my words) who are directly clashing with the new voting demographics across America.

Should it surprise anyone except Mitt Romney that they lost? Consider the following issues that cannot be easily dismissed with stacks of dirty money:

1. The Middle Class Economy Factor

2. The Ron Paul Factor (end the wars and defense spending)

3. Corporate tax welfare Factor

4. The Global Warming Factor

5. The Diversity Factor

6. The Women’s Rights Factor

7. The Obama Health Care Factor

First, Americans rejected Romney’s idea of jobs for Americans i.e. third world sweat shop jobs with no unions, no benefits, low wages, no regulations on poor working conditions and policies that would allow industrialists to pollute ad infinitum with impunity.

Second, Americans, including the Ron Paul voters, rejected more unnecessary defense spending for expansion of wars. Thus Romney’s promise to increase defense spending by $two trillion dollars, when the nation’s debt primarily grew out of Bush’s wars, was met with disapproval.

Third, Americans reject corporate welfare tax benefits for millionaires and billionaires at the expense of public social service jobs and programs (veteran benefits, schools, hospitals, post offices, fire and police, infrastructure, college grants, etc) a plan that Romney embraced and behind closed doors expressed with his infamous “47% are victims” remark.

Fourth: Romney underestimated Americans’ genuine fears over global warming. Hurricane Sandy made a mockery of Romney’s RNC speech that “Obama wants to heal the planet and stop rising sea levels.” Campaigning for Big Oil & Coal and threatening to end all green energy progress when we’re facing extreme climate change disasters did more damage to Romney than he could possibly know.

Fifth: Younger generations from a growing diversity of ethnic backgrounds, including the gay community, cannot relate to Romney’s Pleasantville elitist-segregated-golf club-society, if Republicans haven’t noticed. They haven’t. Hence, there is no future for the Republican Party.

Sixth: This is not the 1940s. The issue of contraceptives and abortion rights are “dated”; we’ve won those battles, it’s 2012.

Seventh: Middle-class Americans definitely appreciate affordable options for health care coverage; they don’t want Paul Ryan vouchers to replace their Medicare. In short, they don’t want Obama Care repealed.

You add it all up together and no amount of money can change these basic, common sense concerns. Furthermore, contrast the rich diversity of individuals at the Obama camp with the pale faced suits at the Romney camp and you’ll get the picture of a shrinking, aging Republican Party that’s out of touch with reality, “…nothing’s gonna change my world…” could be their theme song.

As for a farewell song to Mitt Romney, perhaps “The fool on the hill…” would be an appropriate selection. Arrogant right up to the end, blinded by ambitious greed, Romney was his own worst enemy.

Day after day,

Alone on a hill,

The man with the foolish grin is keeping perfectly still

But nobody wants to know him,

They can see that he's just a fool,

And he never gives an answer,



But the fool on the hill,

Sees the sun going down,

And the eyes in his head,

See the world spinning 'round…