The Integrity of the Political Process and Why Our Energy Policy Is Rooted in Fossil Fuels
I thought I’d share a conversation with a lady I’ve known for about 30 years, who, each election cycle, does extensive work in researching the issues and the candidates, to bring some level of clarification to (I guess) at least a few hundred whose emails she’s been collecting over the decades and who read her viewpoints with interest.
I wrote her recently about the U.S. Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision, and asserted that this renders moot the entire political process. (I admit that this may have been a bit indelicate.)
She writes:
I agree that Citizens United was a bad decision. However, I think the problem goes back much, much further than that decision. A century ago, a cabal of bankers got the Federal Reserve law passed. I suspect there are even earlier examples of individuals and corporations buying Congressmen. (Actually Tammany Hall would be a similar perversion of democracy, I think.)
Overturning the Supreme Court decision would be a good step. Perhaps outlawing all paid lobbyists would be a very good step also…. Sometimes when I get really pissed at the way our Congressmen are bought, I recall reading Colleen McCullough’s historical novels on Rome. Roman politicians were blatantly bought; everyone knew who owned which politician. It’s not a new problem!
I respond:
Well, I can’t imagine what really matters in terms of our so-called democracy as long as We The People have lost essentially all control of the political process. You seem to be deeply and honestly engaged, but I’m not sure why. If Monsanto or Walmart can spend $10 billion to ensure that Joe wins and Pete loses, doesn’t that render the whole thing a colossal waste of time?
Actually, “waste of time” is actually the kindest thing anyone could possibly say about it. The fact that we spend billions of dollars and enormous amounts of personal energy on the pretense that our elections are fair and honest attempts to do what’s right on behalf of the American people, most of whom have loved ones who have fought wars to defend this country, is completely outrageous.
As an example, you know from our previous talks that I think that we as a civilization have a huge problem in terms of fossil fuels, the environment, sustainability, etc. But, empowered by the money of the single most profitable industry in the history of humankind, the oil companies can spend as much as they want in spreading lies about global climate change, the health impacts of fossil fuels, ocean acidification, the national security issues, etc. The voter, deluged with disinformation, doesn’t know what hit him. I constantly have reasonably well-educated, well-informed people confronting me with total bullcrap that clearly comes directly from the American Petroleum Institute’s propaganda cheat-sheet. The API is really good at this, and they can afford whatever that excellence costs.
Sorry if this comes off as cold; I actually have the utmost respect for you; your heart is most definitely in the right place.
The undo influence wielded by the Captains of Industry (also known as Robber Barons) was far greater in the late 19th and early 20th century than it is now. When the people rebelled, action followed and the undo influence, while not totally eliminated, was greatly reduced. History tends to repeat itself, and I expect it to repeat itself again.
I recently finished reading the history of the Astors, who were beyond wealthy. Most of their wealth resulted from the New York real estate bought by John Jacob Astor the first in the 19th century, before prices increased beyond anyone’s wildest imagination. Part of the Astor’s real estate holdings were in horrible slum properties. Here is a story about one of the Astor’s attitude towards slum people.
When an author asked one of the third generation Astors whether he had a tinge of conscience about throwing poor people out onto the streets for inability to pay their rent, he replied that his conscience was completely clear; the money they were collecting was simply what was owed to them. Of course the extreme wealth was unearned; it was inherited and resulted mostly from luck.
One of the Astors left the U.S. and became a citizen of England. Interestingly, he died on the toilet. His estate was called by the media as the “Walled-off Astoria” because he walled it off contrary to the practice of the day. Another Astor, whose name was Jack, was, because of his unseemly behavior, referred to by the media as Jack Astor, but with the last syllable of his last name omitted, i.e., “Jack Ass.”
The exceedingly wealth of today are more discreet, but just as greedy.