In the plot of the film “Seven Days in May” authored by
“Twilight Zone” creator, Rod Serling, the United States government faces an
attempted Coup d'état; a takeover of our government by the military. Seem
impossible? I suggest that this very thing is currently playing out in our
country as we watch. However it is not the military who is orchestrating this
coup – it is the power of money.
The Supreme Court poured gasoline on a smoldering fire of
campaign finance reform in it’s “Citizens United” decision, affirming a
decision made decades earlier that corporations be considered as having the
same constitutional free speech rights as individuals. Money has become the
voice for that speech.
In Wisconsin, the recall election of governor Scott Walker
failed, in large part, due to the support of campaign spending amounting to
seven times that of his opponents; this in spite of a monumental “get out the
vote” initiative.[1] In a nation where the population obtains the overwhelming
balance of their political information from television advertising, where
people vote their ‘gut’ over their head, the results are easy to predict.
Will this ever change; can it? It is doubtful. The powers of
money and influence smell the blood in the water; they will use that same power
to thwart any attempt to wrest their grip on control.
I personally fear that our 200-year old experiment in
Democracy has come to an end – our economy, once the beacon of the free world,
now revolves almost wholly upon using money to concentrate the acquisition of
even more. Most of us stand powerless, like lowly surfs as modern day Genghis Khans sweep over our landscape pillaging and ravaging our Republic by those
who equate freedom as no loftier a goal than to acquire personal financial gain.
I am Robert the Skeptic and I approve of this message.
References:
1. "The Influence Industry: In Wisconsin recall, theside with most money won big", Washington Post, June 6, 2012
