American Democracy - Bought and Sold

Americans believe their democratic system of government is a beacon of hope and freedom for the world to emulate. Throughout our history, we fought wars to protect our democracy as well as bring freedom and democratic principles to people throughout the world but the light is starting to fade with unknown consequences for the future.

“Our political system is infected by a cancer of corruption that is dividing us as a nation while blinding us to the threats to our democratic institutions.”

The sad reality is that a majority of these threats have been legalized by Congress and the Supreme Court. The impact of special interests have overwhelmed the system thus blocking the concerns of a majority of Americans is areas of health care, gun control, inequality and the environment.

In 1857, the United States Supreme Court issued a landmark decision regarding Dred Scott verses Stanford which is considered the worse decision in the court’s history. Dred Scott was a slave seeking freedom from his southern owner who rented him out in the free state of Missouri. Chief Justice Roger Taney in his summary outlined that Scott had no rights to respect and could be bought and sold as an ordinary piece of property. The case nullified the Missouri Compromise while legitimizing the institution of slavery in the South therefore becoming a major catalyst in further dividing the country which eventually led to the Civil War.

Today, the modern day version of the Dred Scott decision is Citizens United verses the Federal Election Commission which eliminates government restrictions on political spending by corporations and unions based on the concept of free speech. As Justice Taney viewed Dred Scott as property, Justice Roberts court viewed corporations as people.

“The court split hairs by stating that if contributions were not being coordinated with a campaign, they “do not give rise to corruption or the appearance of corruption”.”

The Citizen United case also opened doors for additional court cases that created further loopholes that weakened or eliminated regulations for political action committees (PACs), non-profits and social welfare groups. Super PACs allow unlimited contributions from Republican or Democratic billionaire donors as long as they report regularly regarding their donations. And if that wasn’t enough, social welfare groups and nonprofits are not legally required to report donors which opens the door for dark money from anywhere on the globe. Dark money are funds used for political purposes that can’t be traced to its source. Common sense would dictate some level of transparency but disclosure bills were blocked by Republicans. President Barack Obama said the decision “gives the special interests and their lobbyists even more power in Washington while undermining the influence of average Americans who make small contributions to support their preferred candidates”.

The cost to run for Congress, Senate or the Presidency is astronomical. In 2017, a special election was held for a congressional seat in district #6 in Georgia between Karen Handel (R) and Jon Ossoff (D) with total spending of about USD 50 million, of which 96 percent of Ossoff’s funds and 78 percent of Handel’s funds came from outside the state.

“This became the most expensive house seat in history by topping the previous record by approximately USD 20 million.”

The seat was won by Karen Handel who then lost it in the recent midterms to Lucy McBath (D), an African-American gun control advocate. For the Florida Senate battle between Rick Scott and Bill Nelson, the total spending by candidates, political parties, super PACs and dark money exceeded USD 150 million. In the recent midterm election, some congressional candidates raised more money within their state then candidates running for the United States Senate. To top this off, the 2016 presidential race raised in excess of USD 2 billion. The majority of this money is spent on negative political ads that distort the truth which further divides us as Americans.

Last year many long serving representatives retired from The House of Representatives. They cited various reasons for their decisions but a recurrent factor was the constant fundraising pressure required for the next election cycle. As a result, we have a large class of freshman members of Congress that are eager to do the people’s work until they are exposed to the dark reality of Washington, getting re-elected. This requires fund raising consultants, attending political action fund-raisers and spending an inordinate amount of time in call centers soliciting funds. How much time is available to do their job and where does all this money come from and what is expected in return? Hopefully, the new Congress can be the antidote needed to neutralize the poison within our current political system.

“Recently, the Berlin based Transparency International 2018 report dropped the United States six places in its global corruption index which is the lowest score in seven years.”

It cited populism and the erosion of democracy as the major challenges to anti-graft efforts. Conflict experts are now focusing their attention on American politics while The Economist Intelligence Unit has downgraded the United States to a “flawed democracy” from a “full democracy”. Most major polls highlight the high level of distrust most Americans hold for Congress. We are at a crisis point as our system of government is being attached on numerous fronts, domestically and internationally. We must join together as Americans to level the playing field and take back our government from corporations, individuals and outsiders that bend and distort our system for their own selfish reasons.

“Our future and our children’s future are under attack and the time to address these issues is now before it’s too late.”

The challenge might seem overwhelming but as Senator Robert Kennedy said in his “Ripple of Hope Speech” delivered at the University of Cape Town in 1966, “Few will have the greatness to bend history itself, but each of us can work to change a small portion of events. It is from numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human history is shaped.”

Our democracy is being sold to the highest bidder

#Corruptions #Politics #Elections #Democracy #Cancer