Opinion Column | Washington’s Bayonette
Corruption is rife in our political system — and I believe the recent elections and the first two years of the Biden “presidency” were perfect illustrations of that.
And in light of recent revelations that Big Tech has been colluding with the government to censor Americans (including in election-changing ways) for years now, it is hardly surprising that Google and Meta (owners of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp) would be part of the corruption. Democrats have been loudly demanding more censorship (just like the tech platforms) while Republicans want less—yet Google’s and Meta’s PACs gave MORE funding to Republicans than Democrats this election cycle. Which begs the question—WHY?
The 2022 midterm elections are quickly becoming another 2020-like debacle. Despite being crushed in the polls (and the exit polls), despite record Republican turnout in several swing states, and despite economic issues topping the charts for people’s main concerns, the 2022 elections quickly became a mess of incompetence and alleged fraud that left Democrats in control of the Senate and even gaining governorships (Arizona’s ongoing disaster being a perfect illustration).
Of course, as I reported in 2020 for Rogue Review, the Democrats have a history of cheating and lying to manipulate elections that goes back literally hundreds of years—it shouldn’t exactly be a shock that they haven’t changed. But we can’t entirely blame Democrats for Republican losses. Many Republican leaders, including Mitch McConnell, actually sabotaged Republican candidates or denied evidence of election meddling—and if even more Republicans are getting money from woke, leftist, globalist Google and Meta than Democrats, that starts to make more sense.
Republicans are really good at saying one thing in front of the cameras and doing something else behind the scenes, it would seem. Or else how are some of the Google and Meta donation recipients considered major “Big Tech critics”?
From OpenSecrets, here’s Google’s PAC donation summary (notice Google has consistently, if narrowly, been giving more to Republicans):
From OpenSecrets, Meta’s PAC donation summary (again, notice Meta/Facebook has been consistently funding more to Republicans than Democrats):
Some people will probably note that the contributions to individual candidates are usually “small”—that is, comparatively speaking, $4,500 or even $10,000 is not much for candidates normally running multi-million-dollar campaigns. The point is that Google and Meta would not be giving any money to candidates if it were not a good investment.
For instance, I’m guessing the reason Mike Lee is near the top of both companies’ PACs’ donation lists is that Meta and Google saw either a past return or a future promise from giving him a few thousand dollars.
Tech companies don’t throw away even $4,500 for no reason, especially during a time when they’re supposedly under such Congressional scrutiny.
Of the nine top donation recipients in the House from Google’s PAC (meaning they received $10,000 each), seven are Republican, while only two (Nancy Pelosi and Zoe Lofgren) are Democrat. The Republicans are John Curtis (R-UT), Tom Emmer (R-MN, Drew Ferguson (R-GA), Kay Granger (R-TX), Brett Guthrie (R-KY), Darin LaHood (R-Ill), and Patrick McHenry (R-NC). Meanwhile, ALL of the Senators who received $10,000 each from Google’s PAC were Republican: Mike Crapo (R-ID), John Hoeven (R-ND), Jerry Moran (R-KS), John Thune (R-SD), and Todd Young (R-IN). Google’s PAC also gave $7,500 each to Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), John Boozman (R-AR), and Tim Scott (R-SC); and $5,000 to James Lankford (R-Okla), Mike Lee (R-UT), and Mitch McConnell (R-KY). And Google’s PAC gave Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) $3,000.
It’s rather ironic that Thune and Lee are considered major “critics” of Big Tech and were targeted by Google’s search bias before the election (Grassley has also slammed Big Tech). It makes one wonder how sincere any of the criticism from politicians is.
After all, politicians love to talk about Big Tech, but what have they actually done or accomplished against biased online censorship?
If your eyes haven’t completely glazed over with that list of names and numbers, there’s plenty more from Meta’s (Facebook’s) PAC.
Some of the same names, of course, but not identical (Mike Lee, incidentally, has reportedly been a key recipient of Big Tech funds for years—and these numbers would seem to confirm that). Interestingly, though Meta’s PAC did give more to Republicans than Democrats altogether, Meta’s top five House donation recipients in terms of the amounts of money this election cycle were all Democrats (with Zoe Lofgren topping the list at $6,000).
Within the top ten are three Republicans, though; Patrick McHenry (R-NC) for a $4,000 donation and James Comer (R-KY) and Drew Ferguson (R-GA) for $3,500 each.
Bob Latta (R-OH) also received $3,500. For the Senate, Meta PAC’s only $10,000 recipient was Chuck Schumer (D-NY)—Schumer’s daughter was employed by Facebook as of January 2022. But Meta’s PAC gave Steven Daines (R-MT), John A Barrasso (R-WY), Deb Fischer (R-NE), and Mike Lee (R-UT) $7,500 each and Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) received $5,000.
Meta PAC gave to Republicans more than Democrats by over 5 percentage points:
There are dozens of other donation recipients for smaller amounts. You can see if your representative or senator received funding from Meta’s PAC or Google’s PAC at Open Secrets—and perhaps write them to ask where they stand on important issues such as censorship and antitrust.
The last thing we need right now in America is a Congress owned by corrupt Big Tech.
