Trust-busting
president Teddy Roosevelt railed against the fat cats of his time. So did
Louisiana Governor and U.S. Senator Huey Long, as flawed as he was. We need
people like that in office today, because the fat cats are still fat and
getting fatter - often at the expense of the handicapped, the mentally
retarded, children and others who are dispossessed.
Our campaign system is skewed toward the
wealthy. Corporate money flows into the election coffers of politicians, like
wine into a wino. They're drunk on it. And while they insist it doesn't affect
their decisions, it does buy a donor access. And that can often lead to
incredible government subsidies for their interests.
A public official always will meet with
someone who kept his or her political career alive. It's unfair to the rest of
us.
When was the last
time you heard of a working class mother holding a gala fundraiser for a
candidate? Right. Never.
Corporations that get huge tax breaks from their Capitol Hill contacts could
care less about her.
They count on infusions of money, the
life blood of politics. And they return the favor 10-fold or more with
subsidies for corporations. That is not a fair society. That is a recipe for
upheaval.
It's government for sale. Step right up
and write a check. Californians made a damaging, self-defeating mistake in 2006
when they voted down Proposition 86.
On May 18, 2008, Brian Riedl wrote in a
scathing San Jose Mercury News opinion piece that the
latest farm bill would force Americans to pay billions of dollars in subsidies
to millionaire agribusinesses. As he said, farm subsidies have long been
America's largest corporate welfare program.
These subsidies aren't for the dying
breed of small mom-and-pop farmers, the hardworking people who get up at dawn
to milk the cows, plow the fields and then go home weary only to rise again.
Richard Holober, Executive director of
the Consumer Federation of California, writes that since 2004, Chevron gave $3
million in political contributions in California. "For a company that made a
record $14 billion in profits last year,'' he wrote, "it was money well
spent." Despite public indignation, big oil crushed a proposed state tax
on windfall oil profits."
The timeworn adage is that "money is the
mother's milk of politics." And so it is. But whose money? And to what end?
Politicians need money to get their
messages out. But from whom?
Campaign finance reform is long overdue. Let the money be from us, not
from corporations. Let our elected representatives be beholden to the people,
and the people only.
We made a big
mistake in the U.S. treating corporations as citizens, with the rights of
people. The Founders of this
country never intended that.
Corporations do not have inalienable rights.
Onward,
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