Bill Moyers Journal, PBS
That famous definition of a cynic as someone who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing has come to define this present moment of American politics.
No wonder people have lost faith in politicians, parties and in our leadership. The power of money drives cynicism deep into the heart of every level of government. Everything – and everyone – comes with a price tag attached: from a seat at the table in the White House to a seat in Congress to the fate of health care reform, our environment and efforts to restrain Wall Street’s greed and prevent another financial catastrophe.
Our government is not broken; it’s been bought out from under us, and on the right and the left and smack across the vast middle more and more Americans doubt representative democracy can survive the corruption of money.
Last month, the Supreme Court carried cynicism to new heights with its decision in the Citizens United case. Spun from a legal dispute over the airing on a pay-per-view channel of a right-wing documentary attacking Hillary Clinton during the 2008 presidential primaries, the decision could have been made very narrowly. Instead, the conservative majority of five judges issued a sweeping opinion that greatly expands corporate power over our politics.
Never mind that in at least two separate polls an overwhelming majority of Americans from both political parties say they want no part of the Court’s decision; they want even more limits on the power of money in elections. But candidates and their campaign consultants are gearing up to exploit the Court’s gift in the fall elections.
Just this week, that indispensable journalistic Web site TALKING POINTS MEMO reported that K&L Gates, an influential Washington lobbying firm, is alerting corporate clients on how to use trade associations like the Chamber of Commerce as pass-throughs to dump unlimited amounts of cash directly into elections. They can advocate or oppose a candidate right up to Election Day, while keeping a low profile to prevent “public scrutiny” and bad press coverage. And media outlets already are licking their chops at the prospect of all that extra money to be spent buying airtime – as much as an additional $300 million dollars. That’s not even counting production and post-production costs of campaign ads, which are considerable. A bad situation just got worse.
(More here.)
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