This is perhaps the most depressing article that I've ever felt the need to write. But America is done, finis, kaput. Oh, we're still strong today, and we will be for a few decades to come, but the mortal blow has been struck.
The only protection that American citizens have ever had against the vagaries and excesses of big business is the American government. Thanks to the conservatives on the Supreme Court, big business now owns not only the federal elections thanks to their decision in Citizens United, but (more importantly), due to their decision today in American Tradition Partnership v. Bullock, big business owns the state and local elections too.
Why are the state and local elections more important than the federal elections? In a word: money. It's easy to raise money for federal elections, but it's hard to raise money for state or local elections. Thanks to the conservatives on the Supreme Court, a corporation can anoint a candidate which has promised them that they'll get everything but the kitchen sink, and that corporation can pour millions, even tens of millions in dollars on that candidate if they want to in a small-town city election where (until today) even a few thousand dollars could make a big difference.
Even worse, now that big business will own elections, they will also own the judges who have to raise money for their elections, too. Big business will have the legislatures and the courts in its hip pocket, and there's nothing, absolutely nothing that the American people can do about it this side of an almost-impossible constitutional amendment. So what's so bad about big business doing what's good for business? Not only can worker safety protections be rolled back with impunity, but so can benefits and wages. How? Again, when big business owns the legislatures and the judges, what recourse will American workers have? None.
And how bad can this get? Ask yourself this: without a government strong enough to stand up for the people, would we have held BP accountable for the Gulf oil spill? Would Exxon have been held accountable for the Exxon Valdez? What about Love Canal? Or acid rain? When business owns the politicians and the courts, they can literally get away with murder.
Worst of all is that because big business now owns the political process all the way from the grass roots level to the White House, there's no way (barring a miraculous takeover of both houses of Congress in November (and Obama growing a pair big enough to matter)) that big business will ever give up its stranglehold on the American worker. big business will cut wages and benefits with impunity, and then when people don't have enough money to buy what big business is selling, the CEO's will be completely mystified by the lack of demand and the drop in profits. But they will not do what's necessary to grow the economy as a whole, for the business community has never in and of itself been sufficient for a healthy economy. No, instead they will continue to strive to weaken government, to cut into workers' wages and benefits and protections, never mind that every strong economy in the world has a strong government and good wages/benefits/protections for the workers. We are going to devolve, if not to third world status, then at least to something akin to that found in some of the Balkan nations: an old country with a marginal economy insufficient to really support itself. And thanks to big business owning the politicians and the courts, backroom deals will be a way of life and there's absolutely nothing we'll be able to do about it.
Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - Les Slater
Glen,
You seem depressed. Why?
Les
2 - Chaz
Don't be so down. The struggle between the populace and business overlords has been going on in the U.S. since the Civil War. The first time corporations received the rights of people was in the 1880's, I believe. That ushered in the Gilded Age, which prompted a wave of socialism and tilted the balance of power back into the hands of the people. The struggle has been there forever, it will always be there.
3 - Dr Dreadful
Chaz is right, but unfortunately only to a certain extent. Big business has had its sticky fingers in American government since at least the mid-19th century: the most famous early example being the Crédit Mobilier affair.
That scandal, as were most others, was brought to light by newspapers, who had their own political agendas, of course, but were not beholden to big business in those days to the extent they are now.
Today, there's scarcely a major newspaper that isn't owned by a multinational corporation. Their investigative role is largely being taken over by bloggers, who are mostly hampered with fewer resources and tainted by association by the sheer numbers of crackpots out there on the Internet. Big business knows this: witness their strenuous efforts to wrest control of the World Wide Web before people start taking its denizens too seriously.
4 - RJ
Glenn's true identity discovered!
5 - Glenn Contrarian
Doc -
It's for those reasons you listed that I strongly believe that we're not going to ever again see a resurgence of democratic freedom in America. While big business has always tried to influence government, and while the overreach of business was never addressed by our government until Teddy Roosevelt (though Jefferson strongly warned us about it), that doesn't mean that the pendulum will swing back in the direction of the rights of workers and the people. Indeed, where is it written that such a pendulum exists at all?
As I said above, America will still see some good times - we'll still have moments of national pride and glory, and there will be some great triumphs along the way...but the ability of corporations to influence local elections as they will has now been enshrined, and the death of democracy in America is only a matter of time. I give it three, maybe four decades. Of course, given that events occur much more quickly now, things could proceed more quickly than I suspect...but this is a slow-acting poison, as deadly to democracy as anything devised by man to kill his fellow man.
6 - Glenn Contrarian
RJ -
Got a job? What happens if you get injured or killed on the job because the company decided that simple (and even federally-mandated) safety measures were too expensive, that the millions or billions in profits the were getting weren't enough to justify protecting the physical safety of their workers?
Today, you (or your family if you're killed) could sue, and the state and federal government could step in on your side - just as they did with the Big Branch coal mine explosion after the bosses decided that simple and federally-mandated safety measures were too expensive (which, btw, was precisely the same reasoning that led to the BP oil spill).
But thanks to your Supreme Court, a decade or two from now the corporations will own the judges and the police commissioners and the sheriffs (wherever such are elected to office) in addition to the state legislatures. And when the corporations own the legislature and the senior law enforcement officers and the courts, who will stand up for you and your family?
No one.
Maybe a few bloggers will take up your case, but major media will NOT - because they are corporate-owned as well. In other words, in the decades to come, when big business screws people over, ruins their lives, or even kills them, there will be ZERO effective recourse.
Maybe nothing bad will ever happen to you, RJ - I hope not, for I wish ill on no one. But this IS going to happen, as history teaches us from the days of the Robber Barons to Bhopal to the BP oil spill. Welcome to the Brave New Conservative World.
7 - Chaz
About that pendulum...
Polybios first noticed it, and called it anacyclosis. Government is cyclical. We're in the oligarchy stage now, but it too shall pass.
8 - Glenn Contrarian
Chaz -
I'd like to think that it shall pass, but times change with technologies. As an example, can you name a generation in all humanity's history that is as peaceful (relative to population) as it has been since 1990, even given the Rwandan genocide and our wars in the Middle East? I don't think you can.
So what changed? Did humanity change? Or did technology enable or force a change (since we now can literally end all human life on earth)? Either way, it's different now. That example in and of itself should show that it is folly to assume that because "that's the way it's always been", that's the way it will be now and in the future.
You and I obviously share that deep appreciation for history and the lessons it has to teach (that those in power all too often forget). But every once in a while the technological progression of humanity forces a change in human society...and (barring worldwide catastrophe) the pace of change will no doubt continue to accelerate - and as it does, human society will continue to change and adapt as it must, sometimes not for the better.
But don't get me wrong - I'm enjoying the discussion and the mental challenge you present.
9 - Les Slater
As many have pointed out, none of this is new. Glenn's pessimism stems from the length of the current direction and its depth.
One must remember that most progressive laws and rights have not come from the government. The government, all three of its branches, have responded to political pressure from the streets.
Looking to the government to solve our problems is a dead end.
10 - Glenn Contrarian
Les -
If the government is owned by corporations, then it has no need to listen to pressure from the streets. Why should it, when elected officials get far more money from corporations than from the people?
11 - Les Slater
Glenn,
The corporations have owned the two major parties for eons. Indirectly they have also owned the courts including the Supreme Court.
The main characteristic of the modern era is that the main antagonisms are between capital and the working class. The power, or at least potential power, of the working class is obvious. Not so of the corporations.
The government is a tool, an instrument, of class rule. It's strength lies in its apparent neutrality between capital and labor. That appearance of neutrality is wearing thin. The government is less powerful now than its been in quite a while. Its acts and its laws are a sign of desperation... and weakness.
Les
12 - Dr. Joseph S. Maresca
There are still small businesses. The small business sector has grown more substantial in recent years. In addition, millions of people stand to inherit from the declining World War II generation. There are still millions of union workers throughout the U.S. There are tens of thousands of professionals in each of the major professions like accountancy, law, engineering, actuarial sciences, computer sciences, medicine and other professions too numerous to list.
There is still a powerful religious constituency on both the left and the right. The problem is that people must become more actively involved. President and General Eisenhower warned against the military industrial complex. President Kennedy challenged people to Ask What You Can Do For Your Country. In short, people must step forward from all walks of life to begin to change things for the better. Until that happens, others will take charge and everyone will be the worse off for it.
13 - Chaz
All revolutionaries faced the scary prospect of going against a much better armed ruling class. But I'm pretty sure that all revolutionaries, successes and failures, realized that the first step to any successful rebellion is spreading the belief that it can be done despite the advantages of the opposition.
Yes, there are technological differences this time. Tanks, satellites, gunships -- and coming soon, nano-technology.
But our technological superiority hasn't stopped Afghanistan from keeping us tied up for a decade (and the Russians for a decade as well). And it didn't stop the Iraqis from putting us in boxes for a few years. But then, they had something to fight for. We're not there yet. We will be soon. Once rebellion transforms from an intellectual pursuit into a necessity (something which usually accompanies starvation), the promise of death or pain loses its power to oppress.
Additionally, when the corporations have extracted all the wealth they can from this country, and when the people grow angry enough, as they surely will, the oligarchs will pack up and leave. The DuPonts left France when the impoverished, starving, and poorly armed masses revolted, and they'll leave the U.S. in time as well. Off to China or South America they'll go. Or maybe back to Europe. When the cost of investing in oppression becomes greater than the benefit, they’ll leave. It’s simple economics, and Money is not patriotic.
That time is not distant. The Friedmanian practice of draining public coffers to prop corporations has bankrupted this country and placed us into a level of debt that the corporations can not honor, and which we can not pay off. Like colonial Spain, our manufacturing capability is gone and we’re giving up our reserves. Once our government’s credit stops being honored, subsistence and welfare will end, and things will get ugly.
Revolution will become a necessity. Society will break down. The wealthy will flee. A new, more democratic order will arise. That’s what Polybios wrote, and that destiny is inescapable.
Back to your original point: Yes, we have a mighty and massive military that surpasses all others. However, have you considered the potential that we might have to sell it off to pay our debts? What good is a fleet of fighter jets that can’t be flown because of the prohibitive cost of fuel? And how well will a security system operate if you can’t hire anyone to run it?
Another political prophet, Sun Tzu, wrote about the foolishness of fighting a war that does not pay for itself, noting that 40% of a state’s budget must go to military upkeep (we’ve been at that level for some time) â€" something which bankrupts the state and impoverishes the people. He observed that a general will not long keep his head in that situation. Again, we are at that point, or at least very near, and I for one welcome our new ant overlords.
14 - Clav
Looking to the government to solve our problems is a dead end.
Quoted For Truth.
[And Les and I reach that conclusion from radically different starting points -- government is that bad for the people.]
15 - Dr. Joseph S. Maresca
We need a no nonsense excess consumption tax to stop wasteful consumption. In addition, we need a flat tax so that everyone pays a fair share of taxes. We should legalize pot so that the local drug dealers would be required to find some other occupation. Legalizing pot would provide the state with huge tax revenues in the same way cigarettes and tobacco did and still do. We need to exit from all foreign entanglements that are costly and ultimately purposeless. In addition, we need to have higher taxes on bad food to provide funding for all the diseases caused by consuming it.
We need to have a health and wellness health care system and not a disease management system. We need more blue collar education, as well as more infrastructure spending to repair all public facilities which are in a state of disrepair from years of neglect. We need to reintroduce mandatory gymnastics in schools at every level, as well as the workplace. We need to bolster Section 8 Housing so that people pay more affordable rents. This action alone would preclude the kind of fiasco we had in the recent decade; whereby, people who could not afford mortgages- got them to the detriment of the entire banking system.
16 - Glenn Contrarian
Clav -
Right. How did we get out of the Great Depression again? Who paid for all those jobs?
17 - Les Slater
Dr. J,
For housing all we got to do is precipitate a plummet in real estate values, get rid of all the speculative 'value'. Then reduce government to the extent they can not help enforce any debt collection.
Les
18 - Chaz
Deal with reality: with what can be done. What should be done has never been done, so wishing for that is pointless.
19 - Les Slater
Chaz,
If you're referring to my post I've actually taken some steps, so far only talking to banks, about bursting the continuing housing bubble.
Les
20 - Igor
@13-Chaz: good comment. I especially liked this sentence: The Friedmanian practice of draining public coffers to prop corporations has bankrupted this country and placed us into a level of debt that the corporations can not honor, and which we can not pay off.
We've been systematically cashing in USA assets and sending the money to corporate overlords.
21 - Chaz
Sorry Les, I was referring to Dr. Joe's dreamy post. Is he running for office or something? It's all wishes, but no actions.
22 - Chaz
Thanks Igor -- indeed. Have you read Naomi Klein's "Shock Doctrine?" It goes into explicit and painful detail about all of that.
23 - Chaz
And back to comment #8: I wouldn't say we've been more peaceful; just more efficient with our warfare. The US has been in a steady state of war (mostly covert and terroristic) since the start of the 20th Century. Orwell was right when he said the A-Bomb would end traditional war, but that hasn't stopped us from instigating conflict all over the world.
24 - Arch Conservative
No it just died today. 6-28-12
25 - Igor
Chaz: Joe Maresca is a CPA and no more a "Dr." than is "Dr. Dreadful".