Something that took me a long time to realize, “it’s all politics.”  You can’t run a company or a “social welfare” organization without a political agenda to promote your work.  There needs to be an interest in legislation, regulation, budget, and mindshare that demands political activity to survive.

The question isn’t whether an organization is political, but whether the election is the primary goal.  More specifically, do they back a candidate because he’s the most likely to support their underlying cause or do they back the cause to support the candidate?  I fear that for many organizations today (and for many issues), it has become the latter.

What John said:  “You can’t run a company or a “social welfare” organization without a political agenda”. . .

When government has tentacles everywhere in everything, then everyone must rent-seek.  If you don’t join in the dance, you will suffer laws and regulations written against your interests.

Hmmm, are there areas government shouldn’t control?  Would there be less corruption and barely disguised bribery with less government?

I guess if these NON profits showed the amount of money they spent on their non political education we could at least see the ?balance?

I just got a call from the ACLU wanting money for the work it thinks it needs to do in this “highly political” season. The caller said doing political work as a nonprofit was not illegal, that every group does it. I was horrified.

The difference between supporting a political candidate or cause or not is usually pretty stark. One happens to be illegal for nonprofits, otherwise they lose their 501(c)(3) status, which would be devastating for them.

Our system is designed to prevent moneyed groups and individuals from supporting candidates. That way lies bribery, undue influence, and outside control—all utterly anti-democratic. Supporting causes is an different matter. Pay for ads supporting or attacking gun control all you want, just don’t try to buy a legislator. That leads to extortion, fraud, and a graftocracy.

That’s what’s really harmful about the Citizen’s United decision. In rendering organizations voters, our confused justices have replaced votes with money. Instead of one person, one vote, our country now operates on the principle of one dollar, one vote. And once money rules, it won’t be easy to turn back. Power tends to beget power.

Politics is only a part of our prosperity.
The economy is not going back to Medieval system - no tax, no rules of governments but some free royal lunches once in a while.
It’s an evolving, electronically connected newer world of 21st century where a royal prince of Arabian desert and a laborer in the US gas-field, both have to play by the same tax rules.
It takes all of us, who are AWARE of things like this ProPublica, to make the change.