Government of the People by the Corporations for the Obscenely Rich
Not as long as we can fight back, and we are fighting back.
I was afraid for the long-term existence of American democracy. We had our first election last November since the Citizens United case was decided by the Supreme Court in favor of the corporations. America is too close to being bought and sold and our government corrupted beyond our worst nightmares.
The obscenely rich and corporations claim to want a smaller government, but only if they are in charge. The Tea Party is the same way. They want the government to run their way, and no other. What they seem to want by their actions is a totalitarian America; a plutocratic corporatocracy that owns its legislators. Individual freedom would end when it infringed on corporations.
But it’s turning out to be a surprising time in American populism. Republicans keep forgetting they didn’t win the Senate and they don’t have the Presidency.
What is a threatened democracy to do? How do we save our elections and government from all the money that flooded into countless campaigns? How do we the people fix this?
We take to the streets. We become activists. We demand to be listened to, and we hold our elected officials accountable. Americans have once again found our populist voices, and we are using them loudly.
This is the Wisconsin State House full of protesters in March 2011:
We show the rich that dollars don’t vote, people do. When we mobilize the voters, we win even if we only have a fraction of the money the rich have. Senator Barbara Boxer was up against Carli Fiorina, the wealthy ex-HP CEO. Boxer won and spent far less than Fiorina. Governor Jerry Brown was up against Meg Whitman, formerly of eBay. She spent millions in personal wealth on her campaign, but she couldn’t buy her election either. Jerry Brown won.
Some states elected corporate shills, and the backlash has begun. The Republicans elected in Wisconsin, Indiana, Michigan, and Ohio, to name a few, have over-stepped their mandates. They were elected to create jobs, but their policies are destroying jobs. The people in those states have been protesting in the streets for weeks over policies that strip public workers of their right to collective bargaining, among other rights. Those Republicans are giving tax breaks to the rich in their states, then cutting spending on average citizens, laying workers off, and raising their taxes to balance the state budgets.
The people of those states are outraged, and they are recalling elected officials and putting the rights taken from them on the ballots of the next election. Ballot initiatives and recall elections will bring large crowds to the polls. They always do.
The Republicans who took power in the House of Representatives are over-stepping their mandate as well. They campaigned on jobs but have yet to do one thing about creating jobs. Not that they work much themselves–the House is only in session two weeks out of every three. Their pay didn’t decrease by 1/3, but they work 1/3 less. Could you get away with that at your job or business?
They proposed a budget for 2012 that will raise taxes on the middle class and rip the safety net out from under seniors, the poor, and the disabled so they can give a huge, permanent tax cut to the wealthiest 2% of Americans. Why? Because their corporate overlords want what they paid for.
So much for economic growth and fiscal responsibility. If tax cuts worked so well, we should be rolling in prosperity after the past decade. But we’re not.
Let’s get one fact straight: the Republican Party is NOT the party of fiscal responsibility! See for yourself:
Ronald Reagan contributed more to the national debt than any other president in the past 35 years. He is followed by George W. Bush and George H.W. Bush (who was actually pretty reasonable). Bill Clinton balanced the budget and left a surplus to pay down the debt. Clinton contributed less to the debt than Jimmy Carter.
Many middle class Americans who voted for Tea Party candidates seem to be suffering from voters’ remorse. They wanted change, but not this kind of change.
It is clear that the Republican party of today is not able to lead us through these challenges. We must elect candidates who have our interests in the front of their minds and hearts. Those who voted for the GOP takeover in 2010 must change direction and vote these zealots out of office in 2012. Ideology doesn’t solve problems, real ideas and actions based on facts do.
We the people must act against the big money interests in the only way we have the power to do so–get out and vote, and get out the vote.
We have to learn more about the candidates than TV sound bites. We have to do our homework for real. We have to show up at the polls like we show up at work. It’s that important!
Do you vote?
Photos by:
seasidepost
.yinan
Graph from:
MaddowBlog
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