Senator Tom Cotton is the best thing to rise in the Senate since *DeMint’s coalition formed in ’10.

Cotton brings the context home with this defining line: “9 years ago, this regime was trying to kill me“…

Reminder (because it’s becoming increasingly more important to emphasize): Tom Cotton won his election bid with the widest margin of all 2014 Senate Races. Cotton’s  victory was despite the MSM and Establishment Republican team undercutting his efforts at every moment. Everyone in the beltway professional political class told him to “moderate”, he didn’t. Cotton refused to take the advice of the big GOP, and in so doing he destroyed his political opponents.

*Unrelated, but at the request of some research interest, I have been working back through the timeline of the past 7 years, regarding the political landscape as it relates to campaign finance. I have much work yet to do on the matter, but initial review shows something rather remarkable and yet brutally obvious.

The 2010 election, which included the Jim DeMint coalition within the Senate (through his Senate Conservatives Fund), is the origin of the shift in campaign finance -via Citizens United- which spurred the U.S. Chamber of Commerce to explode their influence.

In 2010 the establishment GOP (Mitch McConnell) wanted Senate candidates Charlie Crist over Marco Rubio (Florida); they wanted Trey Grayson over Rand Paul (Kentucky); they wanted their pal Bob Bennett over Mike Lee (Utah);They even wanted their guy Arlen Spector over Pat Toomey (Pennsylvania) and Dave Westlake over Ron Johnson (Wisconsin).

However, the Tea Party, in combination with Jim DeMint defeated every plan of the GOP Professional Class.

That’s When Things Changed

Immediately following the election cycle of 2010 is when you see the Professional Political Class begin to construct PAC’s and Non-Profits using the Citizens United SCOTUS decision to accumulate the campaign income.

By the 2012 races the decepticons had assembled the financial constructs to defend their seats.

Looking backward it appears prior to 2011 the campaign contributions were 30% corporate (Wall Street Financials), and 70% from the electorate (people and groups). When you get to 2014 it reverses, with 30% from the electorate (people and groups) and 70% from corporate (Wall Street financial) interests.

This paradigm shift was driven by:

#1) The newly awake electorate stopped funding large political constructs like the Republican Party, and began funding individual candidates; who were taking down establishment candidates.

#2) Citizens United opened the doors to unlimited PAC and Super-PAC spending; which the GOP quickly formulated to defend their incumbent status.

#3) The GOP replaced the missing electorate money, with money from Wall Street – and as a direct consequence this is why they currently advocate for Wall Street interests.

Wall Street funds the U.S. CoC, who funds the K-Street Lobbyists, who fund the protectionary interests of the incumbent Senators. In return the Senators advocated for even more legislative policies that benefit Wall Street.

In order to defeat your enemy, you must first KNOW your enemy as well as they know themselves !