The United States of America is involved in a civil war. Sadly, most of the population is not aware of the war raging around them. It is a war for the heart and soul of America and the American dream.
On the left side of the Koch-Kennedy line are millions of ordinary folks. They only want the chance to work, and to work at a decent wage. They want to be able to raise families, pay their bills, get reasonable healthcare, and to not fear old age as a time poverty and sickness. As a bonus they want to be able to have a savings so that they do not have to live paycheck to paycheck. Ideally, there is enough money left over after this for some recreation. Perhaps it is just me, but I do not see these as unreasonable desires. There are roughly 280,000,000 folks that probably fit into this category, about 90% of our population.
On the right side of the Koch-Kennedy line are a much smaller number of folks, a significant smaller number. In round numbers there are 3,000,000 or so folks, 1% of the US population. You would think that would be an unfair fight, 280,000,000 versus 3,000,000. Those 3,000,000 have as much wealth as all of the 280,000,000. Add to the 1% the remainder of the population that desperately wants to be in that 1% category. Then add most of the US corporations. There are 440 souls in our great nation that have a combined wealth equal to the combined wealth of 155,000,000 of their fellow citizens. All of sudden the fight does not seem so fair.
I know our Founding Fathers realized how corrosive money could be to a political system. I wish they had factored that in when they were writing the Constitution. Of course I also wish they had foreseen lobbyist, the dysfunctionality of an adversarial two party system, and not ducked the whole slavery issue.
In January, 2010 the Supreme Court struck down a portion of the McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform bill. Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote in the 57-page majority opinion, “Government may not suppress political speech on the basis of the speaker’s corporate identity… No sufficient governmental interest justifies limits on the political speech of nonprofit or for-profit corporations.” Their take was spending money is protected under “free speech”, not matter how much money you spent. It has never been one vote one voter in this country, but this decision has made it tremendously lopsided. Give a several point advantage to those on the right side of the Koch-Kennedy line.
It not necessary to detail the too long list of politicians corrupted and influenced by this money. The list of current politicians that could truly called public servants is sadly infinitesimally smaller.
Corporations are after and have largely achieved an unfettered, unregulated playing field. Witness the recent economic meltdown caused by cowboy bankers who we bailed out. Then we witnessed those same cowboys getting obscene bonuses.
By the time folks wake up to the fact we are in war for the future of America, it may be too late. We can and should put limits on this unchecked greed and grasp for power. Society and government should be about doing the most good for the most people. It should not be about letting the greedy wealthy get even richer.
Below is a link to a story on www.democracynow.org about the Koch brothers using their corporate muscle to “influence” the voting of their employees. I am all for separation of church and state. We need to get back to a separation of business and state…and sooner rather than later.
Thought Control: Right-Wing Koch Brothers Caught Telling Thousands of Employees How to Vote
*** I so wanted to be able to call it the Koch-Obama line, but cannot. Obama talks the talk, but he does not walk the walk. My take is that he is firmly in the corporations’ pocket.