Ever since I celebrated what I considered to be one of the greatest political victories of all-time, it has been a constant losing battle. Obama’s victory felt like such a reversal of bad trends that had consumed our country during the Bush administration, but since that peak in November 2008, we have been subjected to more of the same; more bailouts, more troops, more gay-marriage defeats, more inaction on climate change. On Tuesday, my home state of Massachusetts dealt me a blow by electing Scott Brown to fill Ted Kennedy’s seat. When Kennedy died, I cried. He was a a lion in Senate and a personal hero; everything he did represented something good as he fought for truth, justice and equality for all. He was especially a force in the health care debate, a champion for universal care and when he passed away, the movement lost a great leader. Yet it seemed as though the Democrats, enjoying a 60-40 advantage in the Senate, were on the move towards passing a bill that would protect the people from the tyranny of the insurance industry. And then those Massholes elected Brown, giving the Republicans the filibuster they will use to crush our hope. That hurt.
But the worst news came on Thursday, when the Supreme Court struck down major campaign finance regulations to allow corporations unlimited election spending. When it comes down to it, I believe that this is the very root of American politics. We The People has been replaced by We The Capital; money has become infinitely more powerful than voters in politics, as influence is bought and sold by those who direct its flow. Lobbyists, Special Interest groups and Corporations buy votes and candidates with their “donations” and focus political discourse on their own issues and needs, shifting policy away from serving our best interests, and towards their own political, financial or moral profit. Our elected officials are then forced to vote for the money over the people. I don’t see any way that a politician could justify doing the best thing for the population by voting against health care, but I do see how a few groups wielding a ton of cash could initiate fear and convince the public that any changes to the current system would lead to a (terrifying!) socialist state. In exactly the same way that advertising works, our perceptions are based on information (true and false) and we are, as consumers, highly susceptible to our media. While money has always influenced politics, this decision opens the door to unlimited abuse and worse, makes a mockery of democracy. Whatever fears people might imagine about a “Socialist” USA should be completely undermined by the realities of our current Capitalocracy; our votes and our candidates have become commodities and the marketplace has just been completely deregulated. The only person who can truly benefit from this political structure is not a liberal or a conservative, but a corporation, to whom we have granted the unalienable rights of personhood.
In theory, Democracy works…