Commentary: The GOP has long been "the Party of business". They make no apologies for that and it remains one of the few things they do not dissemble to the American people about. In fact, in the last 20 years or so they have been perhaps recklessly bold about their support for the wealthy elite and about their open disdain for the welfare of their constituents. Democrats, formerly "the Party of the working man", switched teams in the 80's and have also been staunch supporters of big business ever since, while holding on to a semblance of social conscience. However, they have dishonestly and unsuccessfully tried to remain closeted about where their true allegiances lie.
Being in one of the poorer states, New Mexicans suffer disproportionately from the harsh GOP policies followed by Gov. Susanna Martinez. Moving in lock-step with national Republicans, she will give no quarter to the needs of the people, while relentlessly pursuing policies geared to benefit only the wealthy and corporations.
Given this background, it is appropriate to ask, "What is the popular understanding of the causes of our country’s serious economic and social problems?" For example, why is nearly half the population so poor they are not required to pay income tax in the richest nation on earth? And why is the number living in poverty growing? What accounts for the 40-year decline of the middle class? Why is the gap in income and wealth between the richest Americans and the rest of the population at record highs and increasing? Why is overt prejudice against racial, ethnic, national, gender, in short, all minorities, on the rise? Why is the US engaged in perpetual wars against countries that have not attacked us? Why do we pay the highest health insurance premiums of any developed nation, yet have relatively poor health outcomes? Why is our public education system in steady decline and college tuition out of reach for increasing numbers of students? Why is our infrastructure left to crumble; our prison population absurdly high; our life expectancy falling and the price of medicines the highest in the world?
The answers to these questions are available to those who seek them out. However, these issues are either deliberately not discussed in the mainstream media or if they are, false narratives are presented to purposely mislead viewers. listeners and readers (here I am referring to Fox News, MSNBC and AM right wing talk radio as the most egregious examples). Consequently, the real answers are not widely known. A veritable campaign of enforced ignorance is in place because the powers that be do not want people to know the truth. Knowledge is power and the oligarchs are frightened of that power in the hands of righteously angry Americans. The consequence of that widespread ignorance is that polling and news reports indicate that Americans incorrectly hold either Washington gridlock, Congress, immigrants, poor people, minorities, wealthy campaign donors, Democrats and/or Republicans responsible for the sorry state of our nation, and their own personal financial condition.
Anyone who takes an honest look at the state of our nation and our society would have to recognize the inordinate control that large, multinational corporations and their CEOs exercise over our economy, our politics and our culture. Money is power and over the last 40 years it has been increasingly concentrated in the hands of the top 1 percent of income and wealth holders. Recent economic data demonstrates that the richest one tenth of one percent (0.1) of people own as much wealth as the bottom 50 percent of people worldwide. In the US the top 0.1 % own as much as the bottom 90 percent! This historic concentration of wealth at the top has been repeatedly confirmed by independent researchers and has also been the subject of books and documentaries.
The power of money in the hands of corporate owners is used to make more money for them through lobbying and other means of influence in Congress and with government regulators. That process has been wildly successful for business interests, as we continue to see with the loss of more and more regulations designed to protect the public and our democracy. Be it food, water, consumer products, the environment, education, taxes, workplace safety, financial products, gun control, you name it, corporations aggressively press to cancel regulations that cost them money or block their ability to make even more, regardless of the consequences for the public. Today, 1 percenter Donald Trump has become a valuable ally in the movement to de-regulate and to establish regulations and laws that are even more favorable to the wealthy.
This singular focus on the bottom line of the 1 percent is pursued by lawmakers, policy makers and rule makers while neglecting the needs of the people, states, cities, infrastructure and the environment. It is the principle cause of all the problems listed at the outset of this essay. Nothing in this country will improve until the needs of the people are once again put first.
In 2014 two Princeton researchers published their findings on the relative influence on Congress of the general public and the 1 percent. Considering the basement approval rating that Congress holds, people are not surprised by the authors findings, but the outcome is outrageous still. Essentially, there is no relationship at all between what the American people want from their government and what they get from it. However, there is a very strong relationship between what CEOs and multinationals want, and what they get.
Outside of the voting booth the American people have enormous power when they act together and move toward a clear goal. The great accomplishments of the 20th Century in the US were achieved in just that way. Women’s Suffrage, the New Deal, Civil Rights, ending the Vietnam War; and more recently, gay marriage were all won by sustained mass movements of regular people.
Unelected corporate control of our economy and government is a clear and present danger to our democracy. Both major political parties are in the thrall of their owners, and so offer no real recourse. We are on our own, but that is probably how it should be more of the time. As a society, we have neglected our duty as citizens, content to leave it to the professionals. Only the “professionals” have sold us out big time.
Since the primaries ended, groups have been forming around the country dedicated to taking on one or another of the ills we experience as a nation and people. After Trump was elected, more groups formed just to oppose him, as though he represented unique problems, rather than simply exacerbating the old. If we were wise, we would work to join all of these various groups together into a mighty force that would seek to end, via unrelenting pressure, demands and non-violent confrontation, the central ill of our time, unelected, unrepresentative de facto corporate government.