CORPORATE OWNERSHIP OF U.S.
It is time to experience a miracle. Somehow we have to find a way to get the deluge of corporate money out of U.S. politics. Corporations, especially war corporations and pharmaceuticals, have American politics in their hip pockets. And their influence continues to grow. You have been duped to think otherwise. It crosses political party lines. America is for sale, and much has already been sold.
The recent U.S. Supreme Court's conservative and right-wing majority clearly expressed itself politically with its decision on Citizens United vs. Federal Election Commission. This decision lifted limits on corporate spending in the political process. This action announced a fire sale of American politics.
It is absurd to say that labor unions and other community groupings also spend money in politics, so why shouldn't corporations be allowed to spend as much as they want also. First, far more money is spent by corporations than all other influence groups. More importantly, how many politicians quit politics and end up with posh jobs with labor unions? None. Over and over we see people exit politics to take a whopper of a salary with a corporation or corporate-related influence organization. Political money by the truckload is available from corporations and other corporate front groups for politicians. In fact, without this kind of money it is now difficult to even run for a national office unless one has oodles of his/her own money. Without corporate money in your war chest, you are homeless.
What does this all mean? For one thing, it means that the little guy and little gal get shafted in America. Even well-intentioned social service funding ultimately ends up in some corporate pockets.
It means that the U.S. is far more likely to be trigger-happy when an international crisis arises. Every war means billions and billions of dollars of profit for war corporations who have "purchased" their cadre of office-holders who do their bidding. There is always a great deal of money available to convince the American people that war is the answer to all problems. Americans are eager to criticize welfare spending for the poor, but reluctant to be equally critical of welfare for big corporations. We have been sold a bill of goods. And it is to our own detriment.
The results are clear as to what is happening with all this influence buying and election purchasing. The United States is fast becoming a nation of haves and have-nots. The American dream for more and more Americans has become a nightmare. Corporations can now buy our entry into a profitable war. Corporations can now ignore proper safety and precautions and dig mines and oil wells where they damn-well please, and how they damn-well please. Federal regulators are for sale to the corporate bidders, whether they are American mining companies or foreign oil companies. America is for sale.
