"When Money Talks, Democracy Walks."

The United States of America has officially passed fail-safe in terms of turning its governance over to financial interests.  When our Supreme Court determined in the Citizens United Decision that a corporation could remain anonymous while donating unlimited dollars to a political action committee, five of the nine justices sold our democracy to the highest bidder.   The PACs (political action committees) own both the Democratic and Republican parties and the parties control the representatives.   This control is exercised on the representative through disbursement of campaign funds and committee assignment and the position on the assigned committee.  As you know, the committees rule the game.  If you watch CSPAN, you know that the representatives don’t listen to floor debate.  They only show up when a vote is called.  The work, debate on, and form of a bill, is determined in committee and if you watch the floor votes, you will see that the representatives pretty much vote along party lines.  All of this is nothing new.  It simply became official with Citizens United.  All three branches of the government answer to large dollar interests.  Both parties do.

This subject was brought to my attention this morning when I read the headline of my newspaper.  “Water does flow on Mars.”  That’s nice, I thought.  I wonder how many tax dollars were spent in order to obtain that bit of information.  Had to buy space ships, an orbiter, telescopes and to pay all of those brilliant minds to work on the project.  I have to admit that I would vote for using those funds for developing desalinization plants to flow water here in the United States.  I never did get to vote on that, but I can guarantee you that lobbyists had some input.  We are talking about major tax dollar expenditures.  Science is great.  I like it better than religion, but there is a water shortage and we have known about it for some time.  Spend the money for the greatest common good, not for the enrichment of the vendors.

Another example of large money being more appealing than the Country’s needs is Donald Trump’s candidacy.  He is right now the leading Republican candidate for President of The United States.  It can’t be attributed to his political abilities.  He has offended every group of American voters, other than white males.  It isn’t his family values.  He is on his third wife.  It isn’t his physical appearance.  He has a silly looking hairstyle.  He pouts and gets a dumb look on his face when proven wrong.  It isn’t his business ethics.  He claims that he has never gone personally bankrupt, but anyone who has owned a closely held corporation knows that the corporation is you and that the only reason the business is owned as a corporation is to shield personal liability and for tax advantages.  So when closely held corporations of yours have gone bankrupt four times … you have gone bankrupt four times and when you have done that profitably, you are a thief.  I say that because the simple way to a profitable bankruptcy is to borrow, then move assets elsewhere, losing only a shell of a corporation, but canceling its debts.   Trump can do this more often than once every seven years, because each of his corporations is treated as a separate entity.  When Donald said that he did this to bankers, everyone at the first Republican debate laughed and applauded.  That is a gullible crowd.  A bankruptcy doesn’t cost a banker a dime, but it does cost his depositors millions.  In some cases billions.  Who are these “depositors”?  Try retirement funds, corporate deposits, and personal deposits … that is, all of you.   The purpose of bankruptcy law is a shield for the poor and financial failures, not a sword for the wealthy.  Trump says that he follows the law.  No … he abuses the law.   Trump says that he has bought favors from politicians.  Bribed them that is, but legally.   Do you think that his morals will change in office?  Why does this man lead the Republican polls?  He won’t win the general election and perhaps not the Republican primary, but he is a dangerous sign of the direction of our moral values as a nation.

“When Money Talks, Democracy Walks.”  What are we going to do about that?

Comments are welcome.  Cheers, Old Buz.