by Chris Black
America isn’t even run by big business anymore. It’s individual billionaires calling all the shots.
As per a Reuters article, America is officially an oligarchy, or a plutocracy, whatever you may want to call this system. How come, you asked? Well, according to the “common” wisdom, politicians on both sides are supposed to represent the people who voted for them.
That’s how a pseudo-democracy is supposed to work; see, the United States of America is not a democracy per se, because people don’t vote directly for the president. There’s the elector system and all that. And, like the recent election on November 3rd showed us, it doesn’t matter anymore whom you vote for, the system has its own agenda, hence elections don’t matter anymore.
But that’s beside the point; getting back to the common wisdom, unlike the president, congressmen are elected directly, by popular vote, in a true democratic fashion. So, in an ideal world, they should represent the will of the people who vote them, right?
Wrong.
The SCOTUS decided a decade ago, back in 2010, that money is speech.
Yes, you got that right: check out McConnell v. FEC, 2003 (in part). Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, 558 U.S. 310 (2010).
To make a long story short, in the US of A, corporations are persons, and money is free speech.
As in , UNLIMITED campaign contributions from corporations are free speech; or, to put it another way, politicians can and will be bought by the highest bidder. And who has all the money if not corporate entities?
The Court held that the free speech clause of the First Amendment prohibits the government from restricting independent expenditures for political communications by corporations, including nonprofit corporations, labor unions, and other associations.
So, you have a system where if you want to enter politics, you require a) a shitload of money, because TV ads cost money or b) a shitload of money, because social-media ads cost money.
Okay, you may argue, but politicians also raise money from individual persons. That’s true, but you cannot compare a $100 donation from a dude in Iowa to a $25,000,000 Super Pac. Also, corporations employ thousands of lobbyists who are basically bribing politicians and write all laws.
In case you were wondering who wrote that 5500 pages Covid bill, well, it wasn’t Pelosi or Schumer. It was tens of lobbyists working for the banks, big pharma, hedge funds, Lockheed Martin, you name it.
And the politicians who voted for that bill didn’t even read it and they didn’t care, as they are just puppets, or surrogates for special interests and foreign lobbies . That’s how politics works in DC, and that’s why all career politicians like Pelosi are multi-millionaires.
Until recently, corporations were the biggest donors when it comes to the expensive business of DC elections. But now, Reuters tells us candidly that billionaires like Sheldon Adelson and Mike Bloomberg have far deeper pockets than corporate entities. Here’s a quote for you:
Through political action committees, or PACs, AT&T contributed more than $2.6 million to candidates in the last cycle while JPMorgan doled out about $1 million, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.
But wealthy individuals give far more. Casino mogul Adelson, who died on Monday, and his wife Miriam were the top contributors for the 2020 election, spending $218 million to back Republicans. Bloomberg came in second with $152 million to support Democrats.
Blackstone’s Steve Schwarzman gave $20 million to the Senate Leadership Fund in the months leading up to the November election and then handed out another $15 million to the group to help two Republican candidates in this month’s Georgia runoff races for the upper chamber, which collectively cost more than $830 million.
Basically, both the Democrats and the Republicans are bought by the plutocracy that rules America, and a handful of individual billionaires rule over the country.
According to Open Secrets, 8 out of top 10 political donors who are making a mockery of “our democracy” are Jewish. Besides Bloomberg and Sheldon Adelson, you have George Marcus (Democrat), Henry and Marsha Laufer (Democrat), Karla Jurvetson (Democrat, real name Tinklenberg), Paul Singer (GOP), Deborah Simon (Democrat), Bernard Marcus (GOP), George Soros (Democrat), Tom Steyer (Democrat), Richard Uihlein (GOP), and Donald Sussman (Democrat), to name just a few.
Even former president Obama denounced in his memoir book A Promise Land the power of the Israel lobby over the American government, just like Jimmy Carter did earlier, and he specifically mentioned American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) as a particularly dangerous fifth column.
According to Barack Obama AIPAC strictly monitors US politicians for even mild criticism of Israel and will use its immense financial power to obliterate anyone who stood up to them.
Needless to say, this needs to change. How? Well, that’s pretty easy: lobbying should be banned altogether, as it’s basically legalized bribery. Also, politicians should only be able to receive political donations from private individuals, and there should be a maximum amount allowed per capita.
Say goodbye to foreign lobbying groups like AIPAC, and crazy stuff like multi-million dollar PACs, Super PACs, mega donors and all that crap that made DC a wretched hive of scum and villainy.
Also, enforce limited terms for congressmen (2 terms max, like the president), allow only a limited amount of political ads on TV and social media for a determined period of time(politics should not be entertainment), and enforce First Amendment rules on the internet. Basically, free speech must be enforced over Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, you name it.
Yes, government should regulate private companies; it’s a shocking concept, I know, but breaking news: the government does this all the time.