Romney, Obama, Carrie Bradshaw and the quest for campaign cash

>> let's get right to the panel. dr. james peterson , lehigh university , he joins us from philadelphia. delighted that msnbc contributor professor michael eric dyson studio. if i can start with you, we heard jon stewart 'take on money. let's check e.j. for those who believe money has too much power in politics 2012 will be a miserable year. what we're seeing nothing less than a new political system that will make the politics of the guilds age look like a clean government paradise. tis as bad as that?

>> it can be. we've heard people throw around the term of politicrats. what you have, you have as a result of the conksent tration ofwell in the top 1 mrs. of the country you have big billionaire donors who can pick political figures, they can choose winners, support those folk and then actually shape their ideology to make their messaging consistent with what those billionaire people want. so it's a very, very scary moment. throw mitt romney as a presidential candidate into that mix, i agree with e.j., it's going to be a tough political year in 2012 .

>> isn't that the problem? you have here a vac cuous candidate who doesn't have any principles, who is surrounded by cash from individuals who have an agenda?

>> absolutely. it's a perfect storm except it rains horribly on the rest of us here. as professor peterson has indicated, it's as the empty suit whose ideological perspective is shaped by the cash that flows in to him. this is what the group meant when cash ruins everything around me, got to get the dollar, dollar bill . the unfortunate consequence is that we are the suffers because the highest bidder gets to choose what goes on and the supreme court aided and abetted this with the citizens united decision that has had a deleterious impact on america.

>> president obama is in new york, as you know, for a fund-raising dinner with sarah jessica parker and and anna winter, and republicans are throwing a fit over this. take a listen to this.

>> is it a little condescending to suggest that you have high-profile rich female celebrities .

>> celebrities? they think you're stupid agreeing with them proves it.

>> quite frankly any dollar that comes in from anyone for the president or mitt romney benefits these guys because this race --

>> why not get satan?

>> we won't go into satan. anna winter is the sbbasis for the movie the devil wears prada . under neath the hyperbolic ventilation there is jealousy? they hang out with trump and ted nugent . maybe that's why they're upset.

>> there is some celebrity envy here. but let's keep it real and keep this in mine. this is just politics of distraction. it's a great way to distract from the fact that you have conservative one percent who put more money into romney's campaign and super pacs than winter or sarah jessica park, or celebrities. there is celebrity envy but it's the politics of distraction.

>> isn't that right? they are trying to create a crisis and complaining about the president palling around with someone like the editor of vogue magazine but that's the i version, they've got billionaires running the campaign.

>> and the reality is, is that you know you've got pedigree snobbery going on here. we don't have quite as big a celebrity. it's all baler dash. reality is that the american public is suffering because the conservatives have gotten in bed with big cash and it has been unlimited and unrestrained and unleashed by the supreme court so two branches of government are at the behest of big money the presidency and the supreme court . this is a collusion the likes of which we have not seen in american history and e.j. is right, i'm not saying it's a apocalyptic but devastating consequence on the american political scene. you've got to be a billionaire to run for office.

>> franklin roosevelt once said government by organized money is as dangerous of government by organized mob. is that what we're looking at here? are we looking at -- mitt romney is a plutocrat, is he going to motion in a throughoplutocracy?

>> we're here as a result of other factors. the concentration of wealth in the 1% over the last 10 to 20 years those graphs and charts that show that middle wage -- middle class wages are stagnant and the top 1%, 2% focus is going up like that, that is how we arrive at a situation where you can have individual billionaires who can shape tax policy , shape foreign policy to their own whim based on the political process unfolding right now. yes, fdr was absolutely right. what we need to do and know as citizens we've got to push back against the concentration ofwell at 1%, overturn sit zenzcitizens united and give in a grassroots fashion to the political figures we want to support to counter some of this stuff and offset the concentrationwell politics that we're seeing now.

>> final question to you, professor. we have this money flowing in to romney and at the same time we have people trying to suppress the vote for ordinary americans . what could be worse than those two factors colliding in a democracy.

>> no more sharper contrast between the big money interest, the big pocketed ideologies that are driving the conservative right wing assault upon the values and the votes of ordinary americans . and not just african- americans and latinos but for older people and for veterans who are returning home from service in the foreign wars, this is an assault upon democracy itself and i think those who claim to be patriots ought to look at regulation and the restraint of big capital because once it floods the marketplace it just seems into every crevice of the american mind-set and we get purchased and bought. this is the marketization and the monty zaization of american politics it self. and that's in why i think it's a dang somewhere as professor sit, s citizens united has to be rebutted and we have to give money to interests to outweigh the billionaires trying to run american politics .

>> two brilliant professors, thank you.