The Most Money Democracy Can Buy

As soon as the banks were saved with public money, the Republicans, the Wall Street Journal, and most of the right wing political class conveniently swung back to deregulation. They voted against reforms for Wall Street

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By Rocky Boschert
Financial Editor

How can we restore politics to the true mainstream of American values, rescuing democracy from the clutches of corporate power that the Republican Party and more and more Democrats champion – in deeds if not in words?

In addition to the freedom of true free markets, the ideals of individual liberty must also be protected with the beneficence of a fair and limited government. Governments are the only entities that can regulate banks, protect the environment from pollution, promote science, fairly tax millionaires and billionaires, and limit the lobbying power of the naturally greedy and sociopathic corporation charters. When one is on the far right of the political spectrum like most of the Republican Party today, even moderate and sensible policies look like "unlimited government."

Republicans think an economy mixed with government incentives and citizen protections is anti-American. History, however, shows otherwise. From the start of the republic, our Founding Fathers and our greatest presidents have championed an affirmative role of government in the economy.

Most Republicans seem to be unaware that Jefferson vigorously opposed the untrammeled actions of commercial banks and corporations. Jefferson famously wrote, "I sincerely believe, with you, that banking establishments are more dangerous than standing armies." He declared the need to "crush in its birth the aristocracy of our monied corporations which dare already to challenge our government to a trial of strength and bid defiance to the laws of our country."

From Jefferson to Abraham Lincoln to Teddy Roosevelt to Franklin Roosevelt to now, the federal government has played a vital role in public works (canals in the 19th century, highways in the mid-20th century, and someday a low-carbon renewable energy system in the 21st century). From the founding days until now, government has championed public education, such as in 1862 when Abraham Lincoln signed the Morrill Act establishing America's great land-grant universities. From the founding days until now, the federal government has championed research, from Lewis and Clark's expedition under Jefferson to the mission to the moon under Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon.

The neoRepublicans ignore extensive evidence showing that Americans support the values of a mixed economy, not the extremism of free-market libertarianism. Americans today by large majorities support public education, Medicare, Social Security, help for the indigent, stronger regulation of the banks, and higher taxation of the rich. The problem is not with American values – as the Tea Party claims, but with the failure of our government to translate American values into American policies.

On issue after issue, Washington is presently shunning the public's values, rather than respecting them. A majority of the public wants to preserve social programs, but they are being cut anyway. A majority wants higher taxes on the rich, but they are being cut rather than raised. A majority wants to end the wars, but they continue anyway.

The reason America is losing its democracy is because the politicians are trading their responsible representation for campaign contributions from the corporate lobbies. We clearly now live in a corporatocracy now rather than a democracy. And that corporatocracy is most clearly represented by the neoRepublicans (and the big money corrupted Tea Party), the Wall Street Journal and Fox News (both owned by Rupert Murdock) and most other big broadcast and cable media, including NBC, CNBC and MSNBC (owned by GE), and CNN (owned by Time Warner).

Even the old guard top hierarchy of the current Republican Party fought to prevent effective oversight and regulation of the banking sector. In 1999 they strongly supported the repeal of Glass-Steagall regulations on behalf of Citibank and other wannabe financial giants, helping set the stage for the financial crisis just a few years later.

Yet both the neoRepublicans and now more and more some Democrats are being consistently bankrolled by the insurance, banking, and energy and commodity industries – at the direct expense of the middle class. Banks such as the Bank of America and Citigroup, two of the largest bailout recipients, have been high on the anti-regulation politician contribution list; as have major lobbying groups for the financial industry, such as the American Bankers Association and the Securities & Financial Market Association.

America's corporatocracy is governed by elite vested interests rather than moral or economic principles. After financial deregulation led to the 2008 collapse, the neoRepublican politician’s tough enthusiasm for free enterprise suddenly took a second place to their new enthusiasm to rescue the banks through giant taxpayer-funded government bailouts. The "free-market" Wall Street Journal similarly defended the bank bailout, all of a sudden lecturing its readers about market failures and the limits of the free market. They were and still are the epitome of hypocrisy.

As soon as the banks were saved with public money, the Republicans, the Wall Street Journal, and most of the right wing political class conveniently swung back to deregulation. They voted against reforms for Wall Street. They rallied against taxing or otherwise controlling the bonuses received by the CEOs and senior managers of the bailed-out banks. When it comes to the poor, however, the Republicans have a different response: slash Medicaid and public education spending, come what may.

What happened to “a democracy of the people, by the people, and for the people?” Instead, we now see “a government of the corporations and the rich, by the corporations and the rich, and for the corporations and the rich.” Americans with their eyes open know the truth. The rich and their owned politicians are getting richer, and you and I are being forced to foot the increasingly burdensome bill for public education, public safety and to live in the hazards of a deteriorating national transportation and public health infrastructure.