COMMENT POSTED TO AN ARTICLE IN RINF
Shielding Israel From
Popular Outrage
Anti-BDS laws like the one being prepared in America cut
right to the heart of a free society.
Imagine legislating away an entire people's right to
peaceful, voluntary protest against what they see as
oppression and abuse abroad?
And doing so to serve lobbyists who make generous campaign contributions
to the very legislators pushing the undemocratic law?
______________________________
Response to a reader
who said:
“If BDS can be made
illegal, why not campaign contributions?”
Well, yes, but that's too logical for America.
Most Americans have no idea of the massive role of money in
American politics.
A US Senator spends on average - and this has been studied -
two-thirds of his or her time raising funds. A US member of the House of
Representatives spends hours every week at a bank of dedicated phones, trying
to raise money.
I think were the humiliating day-to-day realities of the
situation revealed in a short hard-edged documentary film everyone could see,
there would be widespread shock and revulsion.
All of America's accommodating the brutal excesses of Israel
pretty well stems from the campaign finance system because well-organized and
well-financed lobbyists like those for Israel know how to manipulate it.
But so do many other excesses. Money rules in almost every
aspect of American national politics. The joke about the best government money
can buy is no joke.
But the existing establishment of American politicians appears
quite satisfied with the corrupt system, and America's Supreme Court has ruled
that money is free speech - a ruling about as sensible and ethical as Dred
Scott was. How many American national politicians do you hear complaining? How
many clamor for serious reform?
The campaign finance system is a self-inflicted horror, but
given America's attitudes and prejudices - as, say, towards
government-supported election expenses which, I am sure, would be just as
anathema as government-supported health care - I see no way out.
At the Presidential level, it took man reputedly worth 8
billion dollars to defeat Hillary’s spending somewhere between 1.2 and 1.8
billion dollars, all of which came from special interests and big corporations
who expected a return.
But, as we can now see, Trump’s personal wealth purchased no
independence of action from the money-driven establishment dominating
Washington. He is having a hard time even keeping his head above water and
flaps his arms around to no effect.
America is in reality a plutocracy, just one with a lot of
window dressing and stage acting around the idea of democracy. That is not an
exaggeration. It only sounds exaggerated to those who do not think and do not
inform themselves.
The entire tableau of the Founding Fathers in their wigs and
frock coats gathered to create something new and honorable – a tableau much
beloved by Trump’s base supporters – is no more than a pleasant, childish
fantasy, having absolutely nothing to do with the way America actually is governed.
Think of any number of American politicians, some of
reasonably humble origins, and look at how rich they’ve become. How do people
on government salaries get to be worth millions and millions of dollars,
especially when the costs of maintaining yourself in office are high in
everything from wardrobe and grooming to maintaining more than one home?
We see this not just in egregious examples like Hillary
Clinton, but in many, many others. Bernie Sanders is worth millions. Good old
rebel rouser Maxine Waters is, too. Former Senator and “environmentalist” Al
Gore lives in a massive house where the utility bills alone are said to be
$30,000, and he is worth literally hundreds of millions of dollars. It appears
a life of government service in America can be remarkably rewarding.
America is a plutocracy, not just in its campaign finance
system, but through and through.
