Airborne

Short take: Dark money and airborne civil disobedience

By the Editorial Board St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Merriam-Webster, the dictionary publisher, announced this week that among the 1,700 new entries that will be added to its latest editions is “dark money.”

It will be defined as “money contributed to nonprofit organizations (especially those classified as social welfare organizations and business leagues) that is used to fund political campaigns without the disclosure of the donors’ identities.”

Dark money is undermining American democracy, so people might as well be able to look it up. The problem is getting them to care that a small number of anonymous rich people are controlling the government. Bloomberg recently reported that “spending by candidates, parties and outside groups and individuals” in the run-up to the 2016 election “may approach $10 billion.”

Doug Hughes, a Florida mailman, is so angry about dark money that he wrote 535 protest letters, one for each member of Congress. He chose to deliver them personally by landing his ultralight gyrocopter on the grounds of the Capitol on April 15. For his efforts, he could face up to nine years in prison.

We admire his passion, if not his methods. Dark money (you could look it up) is a far bigger threat to America than gyrocopters.