Democracy in America (1787-2010) RIP - Democratic Underground

McCamy Taylor

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Thu Feb-11-10 08:22 PM
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Democracy in America (1787-2010) RIP

The gradual development of the equality of conditions is therefore a
providential fact, and it possesses all the characteristics of a divine
decree: it is universal, it is durable, it constantly eludes all human
interference, and all events as well as all men contribute to its
progress. Would it, then, be wise to imagine that a social impulse which
dates from so far back can be checked by the efforts of a generation? Is
it credible that the democracy which has annihilated the feudal system
and vanquished kings will respect the citizen and the capitalist?

Democracy in America Alexis de Tocqueville

This year, with very little fanfare, democracy as we know it died in the United States.

Our system of representative government has been failing for some time. In 1968 and again in 1980, Republican presidential candidates committed treason in order to get themselves elected. Nixon, who ran on a “Four Years Should Be Enough To Win a War” platform, conspired with Kissinger to prolong the war in Viet Nam. Reagan persuaded the Iranians to hold onto American hostages in order to give himself the edge.

In 2000, the anti-democratic forces in this country went a step further. Under the guidance of Scalia, the Supreme Court of the United States violated one of the most basic principles of law. They allowed their votes in Bush v. Gore to be swayed by the identities of the parties in the case, overturning an election which the Democrat would later be proven to have won.

Under the Bush Jr. administration, there was no enforcement of the Voting Rights Act, a linchpin of our democracy. Instead, the DOJ rubber stamped illegal minority vote suppressing redistricting in Texas and a Poll Tax in Georgia. Companies like Diebold boldly stole elections in Georgia, 2002 and later across the country. Suddenly Democrats had to be leading by more than the margin of error in the polls, otherwise the machines would cook the results and Republicans would stage upset victories.

But even that was not enough for the supporters of corporate fascism who call themselves names like the New Federalists. This year, their operatives in the Supreme Court placed the last nail in the coffin of our democracy.

The US Supreme Court has struck down a major portion of a 2002 campaign-finance reform law, saying it violates the free-speech right of corporations to engage in public debate of political issues.

In a landmark 5-to-4 decision announced Thursday, the high court overturned a 1990 legal precedent and reversed a position it took in 2003, when a different lineup of justices upheld government restrictions on independent political expenditures by corporations during elections.
http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Justice/2010/0121/Supreme-Court-Campaign-finance-limits-violate-free-speech

Note that the corporate media, when it bothered to cover this story, always talked about how corporations and unions would now be allowed to contribute as much as they wanted to federal campaigns. As if the and unions made it alright.

Specialists in campaign finance law said they expected the decision to reshape the way elections were conducted. Though the decision does not directly address them, its logic also applies to the labor unions that are often at political odds with big business.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/22/us/politics/22scotus.html

In a landmark ruling, the U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday struck down laws that banned corporations from using their own money to support or oppose candidates for public office.
By 5-4 vote, the court overturned federal laws, in effect for decades, that prevented corporations from using their profits to buy political campaign ads. The decision, which almost certainly will also allow labor unions to participate more freely in campaigns, threatens similar limits imposed by 24 states.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/34822247/ns/politics-supreme_court/

To compare corporations and unions is not simply a case of apples and oranges. Try whales and minnows. According to one source

Since 1990, labor unions have contributed over $667 million in election campaigns in the United States, of which $614 million or 92 percent went to support Democratic candidates. In 2008, unions spent $74.5 million in campaign contributions, with $68.3 million going to the Democratic Party. Already, unions have contributed $6.5 million to the 2010 elections, and $6 million has gone to Democrats, according to the Center for Responsive Politics in Washington, D.C.
http://www.aier.org/research/briefs/1550-obama-thanks-his-friends-government-spending-and-union-support

Let’s do some math. Nine elections since 1990. $667 million spent. That averages out to be about $70 million an election. Now, compare that to (mostly) corporate spending in 2008 alone…

In the 2008 election cycle, nearly $6 billion was spent on all federal campaigns, including more than $1 billion from corporate political action committees, trade associations, executives and lobbyists.
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE5880P620090909

More math. $1 billion minus $70 million equals…

Corporate “citizens” are more equal than union “citizens.” No wonder Congress failed to vote on the Employee Free Choice Act, even when they had a clear 60 vote majority in the Senate. Now, they will blame that woman from Massachusetts for their failure to follow through on their promises to labor, the same way they will blame her for their failure to do fuck about health care.

Bought and sold, that describes our Congress, our president, our Supreme Court. Welcome to the New Federalist United States. If it seems strangely familiar, that might be because it resembles Mussolini’s Italy, a land where corporations ruled and everyone else paid.

"Fascism should more properly be called corporatism because it is the merger of state and corporate power." -- Benito Mussolini

What is the difference between capitalism, which we once had, and corporate fascism, which we now have? The latter is a lot like feudalism. A few individuals own the rest of us. They own our labor, our profit, our elected representatives (meaning they own our votes). When they want more money, they tell their paid lackeys in Washington to write them a check. The bought and paid for politicians respond by asking “How much do you want?” Then they hand over hundreds of billions of dollars of our tax dollars. In exchange, the corporations (in this case the banks) do not make it easier for us to keep our homes. Serfs do not own their own homes. They do not reinvest the money in order to free up credit in order to jump start the economy. Instead, they horde it away so that they can use it to buy the next election.

I saw this coming. Here is a link to my journal “The Fourth Right Wing Coup” from early last year in which I predicted that the bank bailout money would be used for a slush fund to protect banking interests in the next election.

http://journals.democraticunderground.com/McCamy%20Taylor/376

However, I never expected the Supreme Court to step in and play Congress by writing new laws to make it easier for Big Business to buy politicians. Isn’t that one of the things the New Federalists griped about previous courts?

It was the height of activism to usurp the judgments of Congress and state legislatures about how best to prevent corruption of the political process.
Ruth Marcus
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/22/AR2010012203897.html

After Selection 2000, I should have known that (at least five members of) the Supreme Court have been using the document drafted by our founders as toilet paper.

If you think that the Congress and President we have now are unresponsive to the voters and overly concerned about the wishes of Big Business, just wait until 2011. The way things stand now in this country, Congress’s number one job will be figuring out how to heap more corporate welfare on its campaign donors. The President's task will be to get before the cameras, the way that W. did in 2008 to declare that the sky is falling and it can only be propped up by billions paid to his best business buddies. The Supreme Court will allow corporations to select the winners of elections. Two words you will never hear together will be “election” and “reform”, because corporations need a way to bypass the will of voters in case their serfs make a decision that interferes with their ability to generate obscene amounts of money.

As corporate "citizens" seize full control of the country, expect the civil rights of actual citizens to be trampled. For instance, AT&T will be allowed to intercept and record all your phone and email transmissions with the full blessing of Congress, the Courts and the President. Oh, wait. That already happened---

Corporations, which receive billions from us when they go into debt, will be allowed to keep individuals indebted to them for life. Because all money really belongs to Big Business. They are just letting us borrow it--at a hefty interest rate---

Habeas corpus will be optional---silly me. I forgot Jose Padilla. If we fuck with AT&T, they won't even have to bother blackmailing us. They can get their paid lackeys in the DOJ to incarcerate us---

Corporate welfare will be disguised as "reform". For instance, in response to the overwhelming demand that something be done to make health care more affordable, Congress will write a law that gives all our money to the health insurance industry while stripping them of any governmental regulation---

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x6263230

We will be embroiled in more wars designed to promote the interests of Big Business---

http://journals.democraticunderground.com/McCamy%20Taylor/445

If anyone criticizes corporate welfare, the administration will be there to insist that such handouts are all that stand between us and chaos---

Timothy F. Geithner, the Treasury secretary, defended the bailout of the American International Group again on Wednesday to a group of representatives who would not buy his explanations.
The questioning was heated and sometimes took on the air of a cross-examination as Mr. Geithner said that a collapse of A.I.G. would have been catastrophic and would have put the United States at risk of a Great Depression.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/28/business/28aig.html

Silly me. I am not predicting the future. I am describing the way things already are. If if looks like a duck and swims like a duck and quacks like a duck, it's a duck. If it looks, acts and smells like corporate fascism, then calling it a democracy is pretty silly.

Eventually, the Constitution will be written to read:

"We the Corporations of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Profit, insure Solvency , provide for Big Executives Bonuses,<1> promote the business community, and secure all rights to ourselves and our stock holders, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of Corporate Fascist America."