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Sunday, November 23rd, 2014

Dividing the Spoils

Author:     Bill Moyers and Michael Winship
Source:     Reader Supported News/Moyers& Company
Publication Date:     22 November 14
 Link: Dividing the Spoils
Stephan:   This is an excellent essay on the corruption of American government, but I chose it because it has this: "From 2007 to 2012, the two hundred most politically active corporations in the United States spent almost $6 billion for lobbying and campaign contributions. And they received more than $4 trillion in US government contracts and other forms of assistance. That’s $760 for every dollar spent on influence, a stunning return on investment." This is what Citizens United is really all about. The flood of corrupting money the Supreme Court has allowed is flowing in for one very simple reason: It is a good investment. It is a measure of the corruption of the court (at least the conservative wing of it) that they are "blind" to what a child could see.
Bill Moyers (left) and Michael Winship Credit: www.cantonrep.com

Bill Moyers (left) and Michael Winship
Credit: www.cantonrep.com

We’ve been watching Congress since the mid-term elections and reading Zephyr Teachout’s terrific history book, Corruption in America: From Benjamin Franklin’s Snuff Box to Citizens United. That snuff box was a gift from King Louis XVI of France. His Majesty was a good friend of the American Revolution but when he gave Benjamin Franklin the gold box, featuring the monarch’s portrait surrounded with diamonds, some of our Founding Fathers objected. They worried that the gift would corrupt his judgment and unduly bias Franklin in France’s favor.

The framers debated the meaning of corruption at the Constitutional Convention in 1787, and Americans have been arguing about it ever since. Today, gifts to politicians that were once called graft or bribes are called contributions. The Supreme Court has granted corporations the rights our founders reserved for people, and told those corporations they can give just about anything they want to elect politicians favorable to their interests. Diamond and gold snuff boxes are as outmoded as the king’s powdered wig. […]

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