The mother of all issues? Whose voices are heard…
admin January 7th, 2008
(Frances) I’ve lost too much sleep lately watching the primary returns and debates.
My stomach tightens when I realize how little voters and media are focused on what to me is the mother of all issues—the role of corporate influence in elections and in law-making.
Money will continue speak louder than our collective common sense and we’ll be unable to address our deepening local-to-global crises unless our next president seriously tackles this problem, pushes unrelentingly for public financing of elections, and refuses corporate money.
A really easy way to find out what industry your favorite candidate is taking money from is to use the “opensecrets” databank at the Center for Responsive Politics. If you use this link, you can choose an industry and quickly see whom it is supporting.
Only John Edwards is consistently reminding us of the centrality of this matter. Last week, Michael Powell in a New York Times article, “Democrats in Sync, Mostly,” wrote that what distinguishes John Edwards from Barack Obama, whom he calls the “anti-politician,” is at least in part Edwards’ “populist cloak,” which he calls “explicitly partisan.”
Wrong!
Edwards’ strong rid-government-of-corporate-influence plank is one of the most nonpartisan positions around. (After all, what party did the president represent, who in 1961 warned us against the military-industrial-complex? It was Republican Dwight Eisenhower.) And roughly 90 percent of Americans agree that corporations have too much sway in
Frankie
