Let’s Put Sheldon Whitehouse In The White House! – CleanTechnica

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Many of you know I am a huge fan of Sheldon Whitehouse, the junior senator from Rhode Island. He is an old fashioned liberal like Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, AOC, and John F. Kennedy. I know “liberal” is a dirty word to many people today, who think it is a synonym for a communist, socialist, progressive, tree-hugger, or dangerous radical. Actually, liberalism was the hallmark of many of the great thinkers who inspired those who crafted the US Constitution, people like John Locke and Voltaire. Perhaps the best definition of liberalism can be found in the words of Helen Keller, who said, “The test of a democracy is not the magnificence of buildings or the speed of automobiles or the efficiency of air transportation, but rather the care given to the welfare of all the people.”

Yesterday, the US Supreme Court handed Donald Trump a get-out-of-jail-free card when it ruled he is immune from prosecution for any crimes he may have committed, provided they were done as part of his official duties as president. This is tantamount to handing a flamethrower to an arsonist. On June 30, 2024, the prevailing wisdom was that no person in the United States was above the law. On July 1, 2024, that quaint notion was demolished by a 6 to 3 vote of the US Supreme Court, which voted to insulate Donald Trump from responsibility for any crimes he committed while president of the United States, making him above the law in all respects. One can only wonder how John Roberts and his confreres would feel if, hypothetically, a president ordered their incarceration. According to the court’s ruling on July 1, the person giving such an order while president would be utterly immune from criminal prosecution, although one doubts Roberts and his right wing cabal considered that possibility.

Many Americans are outraged by how the Supreme Court has distorted the Constitution to protect the man who put three of them on the court. The other three judges all have sworn allegiance not to the Constitution of the United States but the gospel according to Charles Koch, the nefarious billionaire behind the Federalist Society, the Heritage Foundation, the Citizens United decision, the Dobbs decision that overturned Roe Vs. Wade, and the recent rulings restricting the power of the EPA and the SEC, among others.

Sheldon Whitehouse Reacts To Immunity Ruling

After the Supreme Court’s disastrous decision on presidential immunity, Senator Whitehouse took to social media to express his dismay and outrage. Here is a compilation of his posts as published by The Daily Kos:

Our current situation should give Democrats a rejuvenating chance to focus better on fixing what’s gone wrong in America.

We face three huge threats: persistent internal attacks on our democracy, unbridled climate upheaval, and a captured Court with some deeply corrupt justices. Behind each threat is dark money; massive anonymous political spending by special interests who hide their identities from the public. The political class has reoriented itself to this new reality, pivoting to the big secret spenders. Voters notice they’re not so important anymore.

An entire dark money ecosystem has been spawned, with front groups, ‘Donors Trusts,’ coordinating 501c3s and c4s, and superPACs. This whole filthy bestiary of influence is new (or refocused and expanded) since Citizens United. It didn’t used to be this way; it doesn’t have to be this way. Democrats keep voting to get rid of dark money, and Republicans keep voting to protect dark money, but voters have no idea. We basically haven’t told them.

Which is pathetic because voters hate dark money with a passion, Republicans, independents and Democrats alike. Polling is off the charts. (When done, that is; too often pollsters blow the dust each year off their polling questions from the ‘90s and this question doesn’t get asked!) Climate change is out of control because of a massive dark money politics and propaganda operation run by the fossil fuel industry. Before Citizens United, climate was a bipartisan concern (see McCain 2008 platform); fossil fuel dark money killed bipartisanship. The Court was captured by a dark money operation funded by creepy polluter billionaires and managed by their creepy minion Leonard Leo. The ‘amenable’ justices are instructed via coordinated flotillas of dark money amici curiae, [so-called “friend of the court” written arguments that those who are not a named party to litigation file to influence court decisions] with correlation near perfect between instruction and result.

Republicans are complicit in all this because the dark money behind these schemes is also the dark money billions behind their political operations. It’s a trifecta; dark money is behind climate denial, Court capture and corruption of Congress — one crew, one plan, one cancer in the body politic. Democrats should be blowing the whistle on the whole dark-money rot.It explains so much, it has obvious villains, and it has the added benefit of being true. We are in a war for our future and we should behave that way. Working out the details of that behavior should be a paramount priority.

The Takeaway

Sheldon Whitehouse has been fierce in his opposition to the Citizens United decision and the dark money tsunami it spawned. Earlier this year, he proposed legislation to close a loophole in the IRS code that allows wealthy donors to make enormous contributions to dark money groups and avoid paying the capital gains tax on those donations that any other citizen would have to pay. He has also been a staunch advocate for taking strong measures to address the climate crisis in a realistic and responsible fashion.

As the new chair of the Senate budget committee, he told the New York Times in an interview earlier this year, “I can make the case for the danger of unchecked climate change blowing the debt through the roof, in the same way that both the mortgage meltdown and the pandemic together added $10 trillion to the deficit. It’s beginning to sink in that we are well short of being on course for our climate goals, which are themselves only a two-thirds shot of being remotely safe. I do think that there is a moment when some of the realistic prospects for debt and deficit reduction can come to the fore and they include carbon pricing, which creates massive revenues.” He has been issuing similar warnings during his entire time in the Senate.

Sheldon Whitehouse is a voice of reason in a maelstrom of overheated political dogma. He is focused, articulate, and passionate about defending America from oligarchs who think the rules don’t apply to them. America would be well served by having Sheldon Whitehouse in the White House — someone we could rely on not to commit criminal acts to satisfy his own demented sense of entitlement. America needs more climate champions who won’t look away when Caribbean nations get flattened by superstorms like Hurricane Beryl. He has been a steadfast proponent for the environment in the Senate. Is it time for him to take a leading role on a larger stage?