The title to this story paraphrases comments made in an interview of defeated Democratic Representative John Hall. He blames the Supreme Court decision in Citizen’s United case, which permits corporations to anonymously fund organizations for the purpose of running political attack ads under the theory that corporations are people too, for what he perceives as a corporate takeover of the Federal Government:
“I learned when I was in social studies class in school that corporate ownership or corporate control of government is called Fascism. So that’s really the question— is that the destination if this court decision goes unchecked?”
Hall said that the flow of corporate dollars is why he and the Democrats lost control of Congress.
“The country was bought,” he said. “The extremist, most recent two appointees to the Supreme Court, who claimed in their confirmation hearings before the Senate that they would not be activist judges, made a very activist decision in that it overturned more than a century of precedent. And as a result there were millions of extra dollars thrown into this race.”
It’s hard to argue with his assessment. Indeed, corporations funded groups affiliated with business and right wing causes to the tune of millions (possible hundreds of millions of dollars) this campaign season. As a result, we have a slew of Republicans elected to office who even fellow members of that party admit are the most extreme in the history of the Republican Party since the days of the Radical Abolitionists, on issues ranging from the Environment and Climate Change …
Outgoing Republican Rep. Bob Inglis (S.C.) broke with his party today and publicly vented his frustration about the apparent turn toward climate skepticism in the next Congress, when Republicans will take control of the House. […]
“To my free enterprise colleagues, whether you think it’s all a bunch of hooey, what we talk about in this committee — the Chinese don’t, and they plan on eating our lunch in the next century, working on these problems,” Inglis said. “We may press the pause button for a few years, but China is pressing the fast-forward button.”
Inglis, ranking member of the House Energy and Environment Subcommittee, also took aim at “people who make a lot of money on talk radio and talk TV saying a lot of things. They slept at a Holiday Inn Express last night, and they’re experts on climate change. They substitute their judgment for people who have Ph.D.s and work tirelessly” on climate change.
… to Republican hypocrisy about the deficit and the economy.
The human capacity for self-delusion never ceases to amaze me, so it shouldn’t surprise me that so many Republicans seem to genuinely believe that they are the party of fiscal responsibility. Perhaps at one time they were, but those days are long gone.
This fact became blindingly obvious to me six years ago this month when a Republican president and a Republican Congress enacted the Medicare drug benefit, which former U.S. Comptroller General David Walker has called “the most fiscally irresponsible piece of legislation since the 1960s.” […]
Maybe [Trent Franks (Rep-AZ)] isn’t the worst hypocrite I’ve ever come across in Washington, but he’s got to be in the top 10 because he apparently thinks the unfunded [Medicaire] drug benefit, which added $15.5 trillion (in present value terms) to our nation’s indebtedness, according to Medicare’s trustees, was worth sacrificing his integrity to enact into law. But legislation expanding health coverage to the uninsured–which is deficit-neutral–somehow or other adds an unacceptable debt burden to future generations. We truly live in a world only George Orwell could comprehend when our elected representatives so easily conflate one with the other.
Of course, there are good reasons conservatives oppose expanding the government, as the pending health legislation would do, even if it adds nothing to the deficit. But anyone who voted for the drug benefit, especially someone who switched his vote to make its enactment possible, has zero credibility. People like Franks ought to have the decency to keep their mouths shut forever when it comes to blaming anyone else for increasing the national debt.
It took millions of dollars spent on ads blaming the deficit on Democrats rather than the Bush era Tax cuts, wasteful spending, corruption, two unnecessary wars, and an unfunded Medicare drug mandate, to elect candidates who will vote the way their corporate masters tell them to vote. Millions of dollars to spread lies about who was really responsible for the policies that created our massive deficits and allowed Wall Street to run the world’s economy off a cliff. Citizens United allowed Big Business to promote falsehood, mislead the public and use outright propaganda to purchase the House of Representatives lock, stock and barrel. Of course, with the “60 vote” rule they already effectively owned the Senate.
The lesson of Citizens United wasn’t lost on Blue Dog Democrats with lesser principles than Representative Hall who sought desperately to water down or obstruct major health care reform, financial reforms and climate change legislation along with their more conservative brethren in the Republican party. Apparently they believed the corporations would lay off them in the mid-term elections if they played ball. Guess they now know that given a choice, Big Business will always choose a Republican, no matter how unqualified or extreme, over a “business friendly” Democrat any day of the week.
I thank Representative Hall for speaking the truth. I wonder how much longer anyone but corporate approved spokespeople and Republicans in Congress will be permitted access to major media outlets to protest the lies by Conservatives, Republicans and Big Business that we see go unchallenged on the “News shows” and talk Radio on a daily basis.
Oh right, I forgot. Refutations by liberal Democrats and progressives of the untruths and zombie lies are already ignored by most major mainstream media outlets. We already live in a country where the “truth” is manufactured by one side and one side only, and whatever progressives say or do to combat that “truth” as grossly in error is dismissed or marginalized. For that we can thank the conservative activist judges of the Supreme Court who preference the speech of corporations over that of ordinary individuals.
And without a reversal of that radical and unheralded decision by five conservative justices, we are headed for a one party state, one which serves the interest of business and cares nothing about the rising rates of poverty, homelessness, unemployment, lack of decent health care and the destruction of our nation’s once thriving middle class.
Whether you call it fascism or not, it is a grim future to behold. Unless you are the CEO, senior executive or hold a large percentage of shares of major corporations. Their world, aside from having to pay for the extra security to enjoy the fruits of their ill-gotten gains behind the walls of their increasingly fortress-like enclaves, will be peaches and cream.
