The Country Has Gone Backward

Most of the conservative senators-- and almost all of the corporate masters who pull their strings-- don't really give a hoot about "issues" like abortion or gay equality or racial equality or any of the hot button issues that engender divisiveness in American politics-- except that they do engender divisiveness. The rubes who support the careers of clowns like Chuck Grassley, Richard Burr, Ben Nelson, Jim DeMint and Miss McConnell have a role to play (making noise for the media and voting against their own interests) and they get a bone or two-- even if only rhetorical-- tossed in their direction from time to time. And this usually plays out best in Supreme Court confirmation battles. For conservatives there is only one issue; the rest of the stuff is window dressing. The issue is corporate supremacy.

Yesterday when we looked at the worst of the Republican Senate nominees, there was a glaring omission: Ron Johnson, the multimillionaire wingnut in Wisconsin-- who just happens to own over $300,000 in BP stock but is furiously trying to backpedal his call for offshore drilling in the Great Lakes ("I think we have to get the oil where it is"). What does this have with the conservative jihad to ensure that only corporate-friendly judges serve on the Supreme Court? A clown like Johnson wouldn't even be taken seriously-- not even by Republicans-- if not for Supreme Court rulings that have made it possible for Big Business to literally buy elections.

Let me share a 1905 Wisconsin law with you. The law, governing campaign finance, was a breakthrough for reformers and was adopted in almost every state in America:

No corporations doing business in this state shall pay or contribute, or offer consent or agree to pay or contribute, directly or indirectly, any money, property, free service of its officers or employees or thing of value to any political party, organization, committee or individual for any political purpose whatsoever, or for the purpose of influencing legislation of any kind, or to promote or defeat the candidacy of any person for nomination, appointment or election to any political office.

Read it again. Then think about what the American political system would be like if "we, the people," demanded such laws be reinstated and that corporate shills in long black dresses who have undermined such laws spend the rest of their lives in prisons. For one, thing, like I said above, there would be no Ron Johnsons. Nor would we be subject to grubby Wall Street-bought shills and political bosses like John Boehner, Rahm Emanuel, Roy Blunt, Eric Cantor, Steny Hoyer, Paul Ryan, Charlie Rangel, Pete Sessions, Mark Kirk, Chuck Schumer, Bob Menendez, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Mitch McConnell, etc. Imagine!