Rand Paul is finding out the hard way that Citizens United might not be as great as the Republicans want us to think that it is.
Over the last week, stories have been popping up all over about Rand Paul’s struggle to find a billionaire to throw some money his way. On the surface, this may make him a little more endearing to the American public at large – after all, a candidate that isn’t taking money from billionaires is a rare sight these days. But Rand Paul isn’t the GOP’s presidential nominee yet, and without a billionaire in his corner, he’ll never make it to the presidential race.
As Talking Points Memo points out, Marco Rubio, Rick Santorum, and Ted Cruz all have at least one billionaire in their corner, which already puts them ahead of Paul in the Republican Party infrastructure. Jeb Bush, who still hasn’t made an announcement about his intentions, has several billionaires behind him, along with an internal GOP infrastructure larger than any other candidate’s.
The story is sadly ironic for Rand Paul, as he has become a victim of his own Party’s greed. The Republicans were so hungry for unlimited corporate campaign money that they’ve made it impossible for their own party to survive without it. In order for a Republican candidate to make it past the primary stage, they have to bow before the altar of the Koch brothers or Sheldon Adelson or both. And it isn’t just to get that money in their coffers, it’s to make sure that the billionaire spending spree isn’t used to attack them on behalf of another candidate. And that attack money is what scares Rand Paul the most, because he has absolutely no way to counter a multi-million dollar attack campaign against him.
Again, this is the tragedy of the Republican Party. They created a monster with Citizens United, and now that monster needs to be fed. Unfortunately for them, it is feasting on the campaigns of the weakest in the GOP.