“We are now in a free fall toward
old fashioned oligarchy—that noxious, thieving, tyrannical, oppressive species
of government that America’s original settlers fled Europe to escape.”
----Robert
F. Kennedy Jr. “Billionaires and Ballot
Bandits”
Kennedy
isn’t alone in his assessment. A widely
reported study conducted at Princeton and Northwestern universities (1)
released last April, and dubbed by some the “DUH Report”, concluded:
"The central point that emerges
from our research is that economic elites and organized groups representing
business interests have substantial independent impacts on US government
policy, while mass-based interest groups and average citizens have little or no
independent influence.” (2)
Oligarchy, defined here as “a form of government in which
power is vested in a dominant class and a small group exercises control over
the general population,” (3) has now become documented fact.
Reviewing over 18,000 policies enacted
between 1981 and 2002, the study found that the “resulting data empirically
verifies that U.S. policies are determined by the economic elite.” (4)
This, of course, comes as no surprise either to those of us
who have stood witness to the usurpations of economic and political power; nor
to those millions who have suffered diminution of circumstance and future
prospects through the foreclosure of the American Dream.
It also goes a long way to explain the utter
unresponsiveness of this government as it does the bidding of the corporate and
economic elites but consistently fails to address the underlying causes of our
current economic malaise; as well as the complete ‘tone deafness’ of the
corporate heads and political elites to the pain inflicted by inspiringly
myopic and self-serving economic policies.
From a CEO of a fast-food chain blaming his workers for their poverty—accusing
them of bad judgement, it seems, for accepting employment at his wretched
business in the first place—to one JEB Bush, in a singular act of contempt and
callousness, admonishing the poor not to organize for higher wages but to
instead work longer hours. (5)
But the threat goes much further than the devastation of the
American middle class. As noted in
previous posts, a thriving middle class is a perquisite to a healthy republican
order. Without a strong and a commanding
middle class, the rich will plunder society and first attempt to buy power they
will, failing that, call out the military and usurp it.
The above quote by Robert Kennedy was posted on Facebook in
a meme by a friend of mine. I commented
on the post as follows:
“And it is also the reason that
the Athenians originally created Democracy. The oligarchy that misruled Athens
produced a revolution that produced the world's first Democratic government.
Declaring the oligarchy, a 'tyranny' the Athenians not only introduced a new
term in the political lexicon but went about the business of reigning in on the
abuses of the economic elite through direct political participation. Yes, at
its origin, Democracy was about controlling wealth.”
Yes, Democracy, at its origin,
was about controlling wealth, and about the equitable distribution of it. To be a true democrat one must be about
economic justice. This is why those who
support the interests of the emergent oligarchy are about the business of
limiting the franchise, gerrymandering the political landscape, erecting
obstacles and limiting access to voting, and changing the way we finance elections
so that they can be outright and legally purchased.
At base the modern conservative
movement, and the oligarchs they serve, is fundamentally anti- democratic and
anti-republican. The conservative
movement betrays the promise of the democratic experiment and is a cancer upon
the republic.
_______
(2). See the UPI report.
(3). Ibid
(4). Ibid
(5). http://news.yahoo.com/jeb-bush-people-longer-hours-235206730.html#
