This post was last updated on October 5th, 2024 at 01:21 pm
Congress is controlled by corporations and the rich
It’s no secret that our government is corrupt. With money flowing from corporations and the rich, our Senators and Representatives aren’t making decisions based on what the American people want or what’s in our best interest. They are making decisions based on what their donors want. That’s why there’s such a huge disconnect between what the people want and what the Representatives of those people are doing.
For example, on the issue of gun reform: An average of 85% of Americans want common sense background checks. 88% want laws to prevent someone with a mental illness from buying a gun. 79% favor increasing the age required to legally purchase a gun to 21. 64% want to ban assault rifles, and 66% want to ban high-capacity magazines. If the majority of Americans want some type of gun reform, why are OUR Representatives voting “NO”? It’s simple. 👇🏼
(Statistics from Pew Research Center)
Corruption
Opensecrets.org is a website that gathers data and statistics on the donors/lobbyists that give to politicians and calculates how much money each politician has taken over time. They compile the information and put it into charts and graphs to visually represent the data. If you compare OpenSecrets data on campaign contributions for any politician to their actual voting record, you would see some interesting “coincidences.”
For instance, you might see that they voted “NO” on Medicare’s ability to negotiate drug prices after taking hundreds of thousands from the pharmaceutical lobby. You might see that they voted “NO” on common sense gun reform after taking hundreds of thousands from the gun lobby. If a Senator has received millions from the fossil fuel industry, it will come as no surprise to find out that they voted “NO” on legislation to address climate change by implementing renewable energy strategies.
AIPAC
Probably the most talked about donor right now is the Israel lobby, AIPAC, or “Americans for Israel Public Action Committee). They have given millions to members of Congress in exchange for undying loyalty to a foreign government. President Biden received over $ 5 million during his career in the Senate, and over $ 11 million during his entire time in government. You can view members of Congress and the amount of contributions they have taken from AIPAC in this chart. On the other hand, you can tell who has not accepted bribes money from AIPAC by the way they openly voice their position on the war in Gaza. If they are speaking out against the atrocities being perpetrated against the Palestinians or criticizing Netanyahu and the right-wing government of Israel, they most definitely are not receiving AIPAC money.
AIPAC has warned Congress (or maybe made caused some excitement) by announcing that they are committed to spending $100 million lobbying this Congress. If that’s not bad enough, they have flooded the campaigns of politicians who are running against anyone who dares to criticize Israel with millions as a way of “punishing bad behavior”. The fact that these corporations, lobbyists, and special interest groups have been using money as a means of rewarding and punishing politicians for decades is brazenly corrupt.
Unfortunately, people who get all of their news from corporate media are going to believe that our politicians are debating policies using their moral, principled beliefs and values. Reporters treat them with such respect that you’d never know how hard they work to screw us over every day while they get rich from insider trading. Have you noticed how most of our public servants are millionaires? They are public servants working for us, yet they make more money than we’ll ever see in our lifetime. It would be funny if it wasn’t so damned depressing.
Legalized bribery
Our government doesn’t work for the American people, it works for the corporations and the rich.
All of this corruption was made possible by the Supreme Court’s decision to legalize bribery. Snyder v. United States made it possible for public officials to take financial rewards for their corrupt actions.
One of the major goals of the progressive movement is to get money out of politics. If we can’t reach this important goal, we will never have people in government—that we sent to Washington to represent us—who are making decisions by conferring with their constituents and voting on or drafting legislation according to what the American people want. The government of the United States was created for the people by the people. Not for the corporations by the rich. Donald Trump has recently made clear who he would be working for were we to elect him back into the White House.
That’s why recent news of pandering by the presumptive nominee of the Republican Party is not surprising, but the fact that it isn’t surprising or shocking doesn’t make it any less harmful to Americans and our democracy.
Donald Trump stood in front of a room full of fossil fuel executives and promised deregulation of the entire industry if they gave him $1billion dollars. Do people realize how devastating that would be to the environment and the entire environmental movement? We have made some positive progress towards reducing carbon emissions and pollution. The bipartisan infrastructure package included funding to build the energy infrastructure necessary to support a move to electric vehicles. It included charging stations and upgrades to the energy grid. Could you imagine a Summer when Americans are all running ACs and charging their vehicles in the garage, while cars parked in a Walmart parking lot are plugged into a row of charging stations? The effects of that kind of strain on a grid that has not been updated and prepared would be devastating. The entire country would be blacked out while Texas laughed and gloated about their state being the only one glowing brightly in an image of the planet from space. Ted Cruz would have to flee to Texas this time.
Trump didn’t stop after offering a quid pro quo to fossil fuel executives. Hmmm…Quid. Pro. Quo. Why does that sound so familiar?
Well, he went and did it again, but this time it was in front of the richest people in the country. He promised to allow anyone to come on stage and speak if they gave him 100 million dollars. He also promised to extend the tax cuts for the rich, reminding them how the ROI (return on investment) would save them billions.
Two days ago we learned that a group of billionaires who spoke out against Trump after the insurrection on January 6th, who condemned his inaction during the Capitol assault. His inaction for hours as militia members were threatening to kill the Vice President of the United States and capture the Speaker of the House and as his supporters beat cops with flag poles, injuring and maiming hundreds of Capitol police officers. Those same billionaires are now back to donating billions in support of candidate Donald Trump for one reason: to protect their fortunes. Trump told them outright that the tax cuts for the rich passed during his Presidency will expire in 2025, and he’s the only one willing to make them permanent.
Corporations and billionaires are putting their money behind Trump to put him back in office so they can rule the country—the world. As Americans, and as the working class in this country, it’s time we fight back by resisting (#RESIST) their attempt to have their way at our expense. Imagine the audacity of someone with more money than they could spend in several lifetimes who is willing to give up our democracy and freedom just so they can keep their ill gotten (in most cases) treasures.
These people don’t want to see equality, equity, diversity, inclusion, or social justice. Why? Without culture wars and division to keep our attention elsewhere, we might notice what they are up to. We’ll see them selling out our country for their own benefit. It would be like Putin and the oligarchs that rule over Russia.
If they get their way, the concept of a ruling class of elites will become an even more dangerous reality.
Vote this November. You don’t have to vote for Biden. Just vote against Donald Trump.
