Using the Illinois Democratic primary as a launching point, David and Alex break down how the Citizens United Supreme Court case has lead to the oligarchy class using Super PACs to reshape our politics the way prop bets have reshaped the way we watch sports.

Chapters:

00:00 Super PAC spending 2010 v now

00:36 Reaction to Kat Abughazaleh, Julia Stratton and the Illinois Primary

5:36 AIPAC boosting Bushra Amiwala to divide progressives

7:30 Citizens United: The Super Pac’s origin 

11:24 David Comps The FEC to Adam Silver stopping cap circumvention, and the creation of Super PACs to the introduction of online sports gambling and the prop bet.

13:35 The Free Town project: The libertarian utopia as a metaphor for campaign finance deregulation

17:41 Increase in dark money spending over time

18:40 The local effect

19:22 How Super PACs changed lawmakers constituents 

21:44 The attention economy elevating social media stars like Zohran Mamdani

24:36 Elon Musk and billionaire ROI on Super PAC donations

30:50 How Super PACs have mutated

36:10 Phone time is a reason congresspeople like SuperPACs

39:51 Virginia’s data centers fight

43:31 The Ai and tech lobby

44:39 Why all of this is bad for Democrats

53:55 How do we fix this?

56:00 How it’s a form of voter suppression

58:12 Get involved locally