The Other Side of Dictatorships

Despite the rhetoric of the Tea Party, which is quickly usurping the Republican Party, the main threat to the freedoms we enjoy in America is not socialism. Rather, it is the fact that we are quickly becoming a Corporatocracy. Sadly, if not ironically, many of these people carrying their "Obama is a Socialist/Muslim/Nazi/Whatever" are being used by the corporations that would benefit the most.

A huge step in the direction of our becoming the United States of Dow Jones is the jaw-dropping decision of the Supreme Court to give the same free speech rights to corporations that citizens enjoy in regards to campaign spending. This despite the fact that corporations don't vote, can't go to jail, and don't die. And the fact that the spending power of GE, Newscorp, Dow Chemical, or Monsanto would dwarf that of all but the most wealthy Americans. Despite the fact that these corporations may be international conglomerates, which leads to the problem that foreign governments could influence American policy through these corporations.

And this despite the fact that the power of our government is actually controlled by the citizens. (The ones who vote, anyway.) Instead, the New Right wants to give all the power to the "free market", so a company based in Zurich, or Dubai, or Russia, can determine key aspects of your life. Hurricane destroys your town? No more FEMA trailers. Instead, you can pay $59.99 a month for the next 20 years for your trailer, which may or may not be off-gassing carcinogens. (Who knows? After we disband the FDA and EPA, we'll just have to take the companies' good word that the trailers are safe.) Want to start a blog? Well, good luck getting your message out, because the majors will squeeze you out of the bandwidth and download speed, and the FCC can't help you because the courts ruled they have no jurisdiction over the web. Want to start an opposition party? Better be funded by billionaires such as Rupert Murdoch and the Koch brothers, like the Tea Party is.

I'm not a communist. I'm not a socialist. I enjoy making money, and I like that our system allows me to make as much as I can, as long as I'm willing to work for it. But money is power, and unchecked power always, always leads to corruption. The GOP dream of almost completely unregulated corporations paying as little tax as possible is just that. Their argument that "market forces" will keep corporations in check has been proved wrong again and again. Auto manufacturers, dry wall installers, plastic toy manufacturers, egg companies, airlines- the list goes on and on of companies that only begrudgingly acknowledged life threatening problems with their products after people were hurt, or they were dragged to the table by the government. This is one of the many, many reasons that the government needs to play a strong and transparent regulatory role in the market.

And when I say "the government", I'm not referring to the Abstract Concept the New Right tries to portray our government as. The people who give congress a 20% approval rating, but can't name their district's congressman. The people who refuse to vote because both parties are "just the same." The people who think that it's a good idea to add another check and balance to the government by electing an opposition party in congress to the president in every mid-term election since the late 60's, which, of course, always results in a gridlock for which each side can blame the other. Our government isn't an Abstract Concept. It's a representative democracy, and more specifically a republic. In other words, you control it, if you vote. You control policy, if you vote. If we let business, (and let's be clear, by business, we're not talking about your friend's photography studio, or your uncle's CPA business, or that Gastric Pub you're dreaming about opening- we're talking about multi-national, billion dollar revenue corporations) take over the controls in the interest of the "free market", we are resigning our control to them. And, unless you are a stock holder with a very significant share, you have almost zero chance of influencing policies that will directly affect your life.

So, unless you like the cell phone companies and cable companies and oil companies deciding these policies, vote this November. Vote for the candidates who don't hypocritically demonize the very system of which they are spending untold millions to be a part of. The ones who understand that the reason government plays a huge role in our lives is because we in fact are the government.