The Battle Between Ocracies

We may have elected Barack Obama president, but make no mistake about it: there is a fierce contest underway to decide who will rule the United States of America -- corporations or the people.

In a plutocracy, the wealthy rule. In a democracy, the people have the power. And in the history of the United States, while Team Democracy has always been larger and paraded as the champs, in truth the Plutocrats have been better financed and sneaking steroids in the forms of government bailouts and deregulatory favors. (And in the convenient space where metaphor meets real life, A-Rod, raking in $28 million a year, in fact plays for the Plutocrats.)

Since the founding of America, Plutocrats have generally been in the lead (see, e.g., the Constitutional establishment of the Senate in 1776 giving disproportionate power to Southern slave owners, and the gouging of progressive income and estate taxes from the 1980s through the present handing greater sums to the already-wealthy than ever before). Team Democracy, however, has had its triumphs (see, e.g., the abolitionist and women's suffrage movements of the 1800s, the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s and every major progressive victory in between or since). The forty-hour workweek, public transportation, integrated schools, Social Security -- these were not things handed to the public as gifts from the benevolent ruling class but always victories wrested by active citizens from the opposing status quo. The many standing up to the monied.

So how is Team Democracy fairing today? Let's go to the scoreboard.

On the one hand, President Obama's economic stimulus package was a big victory for we, the people. Over $87 billion for Medicaid, $66 billion for public schools, $35 billion to extend unemployment, $20 billion for food stamps, $4 billion to extend the tax credits to poor families. While corporate America certainly benefits from a more economically stable, educated and healthy population of workers, the clear priority of the stimulus package was first and foremost to help the American people. Similarly, Obama's plan to help struggling homeowners refinance their mortgages will certainly help banks keep getting payments but primarily helps working families stay in their homes.

On the other hand, we have TARP, the $700 billion (and thanks to AIG, still growing) Taxpayer Assisted Recovery Plan for the financial industry. Katrina Vanden Heuvel, publisher of the Nation, calls TARP "The Act Rewarding Plutocrats". John Thain, CEO of Merrill Lynch, spent $1.2 million redecorating his office and pleaded for a $10 million bonus at the end of 2008, the year in which Merrill posted $11 billion in losses and received $10 billion in government TARP funds. (After Bank of America bought Merrill in a fire sale, BofA chief Kenneth D. Lewis flew in his private jet from North Carolina to New York to let Thain know that his new team could only have one star player). Northern Trust of Chicago got $1.5 billion in bailout funds and immediately laid off 450 workers and paid for a lavish series of parties for managers, including a $50,000 private concert with Sheryl Crow.

These and other horror stories have surfaced despite a lack of transparency. The Associated Press contacted the 21 banks that received at least $1 billion in public TARP money and asked four questions: How much has been spent? What was it spent on? How much is being held in savings? What's the plan for the rest?

According to the AP, "None of the banks provided specific answers and most refused to explain why they are keeping the information secret."

Score for Plutocracy! Not only have they been fleecing us for years by hocking sub-prime mortgages, gutting employee pensions and lobbying to oppose every decent public policy that crosses Congress' desk. Now they're doing it with taxpayer money and not even telling us about it.

With Timothy Geitner and Larry Summers heading Obama's economic team, both season ticket holders to Plutocracy's every game, the bases are loaded and Plutocracy is up at bat.

Yet the irony is that there's really no contest at all. Regardless of any persistent evidence to the contrary, by design the United States is a democracy. Supposedly, the game is rigged in our favor. But we repeatedly cede our power to Plutocracy. As the current debate over bank nationalization illustrates, we presume that private enterprise and profit are best and only path to prosperity for our nation, no matter the costs to equal opportunity let alone our national purse.

The American public may be fed up with corporate excess, extreme inequality and the daily struggle to make ends meet while the ending just gets happier for the super-rich. But we've been fed up before and still succumbed to the conspicuous consumption, race-baited scapegoating and general political apathy that allows Plutocracy to triumph. At a time when all of us---corporate America included---risk plummeting into a profound and prolonged depression if we continue business as usual, it's time to make our economy and our country finally work for all of us, including average Americans---investing in our social safety net, strengthening employee bargaining power, securing universal health care, reviving our public schools and universities, making sure every family has a roof over their head. But we're not going to get there without organizing to demand the change the people need.

There has never been a better time to root for Democracy.

I'm not sure why, but I'm on twitter. Follow me: http://twitter.com/sallykohn

Comments

[dsws]

"Regardless of any persistent evidence to the contrary, by design the United States is a democracy.­"

The Constitution and the Federalist Papers are persistent, aren't they? The United States was designed to be a mixed system, part democracy and part plutocracy. Money is power. In any system where it is not given legitimate means to obtain influence, it will find illegitimate means to corrupt or overthrow the system. The founders understood that. Most were wealthy themselves.

This system at least gives every generation a decent chance at democracy.

[research]

Plutocracy is not in the Constitution Anywhere.

Pure bs.

Don't you know the colonist were trying to free themselves of the British Plutocratic Bankers??

" I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around [the banks]

will deprive the people of all property until their children wake-up

homeless on the continent their fathers conquered.

The issuing power should be taken from the banks and restored to the people, to whom it properly belongs.
Thomas Jefferson, (Attributed)
3rd president of US (1743 - 1826)

"I hope we shall crush in its birth, the aristocracy of our moneyed corporations which even now challenge our government to a trial of strength and bid defiance to the laws of our country!"

- Thomas Jefferson

[dsws]

Thomas "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" Jefferson didn't write the Constitution. He wrote the Declaration of Independence. The Constitution was written by James "life, liberty, or property" Madison. Jefferson's ideal was that everyone should be a yeoman farmer. Madison thought that trying to even out the distribution of property was "wicked or improper".

[dsws]

"(see, e.g., the Constitutional establishment of the Senate in 1776 giving disproportionate power to Southern slave owners"

The Constitution wasn't 1776.

[GrainOSand]

Mrs. Kohn, thank you, you captured the issue. Something is happening in our world. We are either going to address long neglected issues that weigh us down, that keep us divided, which further weighs us down, or we are going to hit depths we do not want or cannot fathom. Fundamental questions are being asked throughout the country as people assess the general and specific quality of service, of product, and most importantly, of life. Many reject what they see. The whole country is in the fight of its' life for its' life. Some cling to an anchor of what got us here (tax cuts, corporate favoritism, and military buildup) and some say we must let go of that which burdens us, the heavy weight of a few feeding off the many. Prosperity can and must be had for all. This is not just true of American people, but all people. When certain people are consistently steamrolled there is a historical price to pay. It is really a question of when not if. People eventually do grow weary. Eventually, they make a stand.

[GrainOSand]

This could be the moment the masses make a stand for the future. This may be a time where the interests of the Plutocrats do not eclipse or drown out the common interest. This may be the moment when America realizes business as usual is far too costly. Prosperity for all irrespective of Party or any other delineation of disunity. I do not covet wealth redistribution, just a fair environment of opportunity (which is not the present environment for many).

[GrainOSand]

The question at hand concerning our beloved president is does he stand for the Plutocracy or does he stand with the people. This is evident from the questions being asked by journalist in the daily briefing -- with Robert Gibbs (thank you very much -- with the cadence of Elvis).

Is the administrations' outrage over the AIG bonuses a thing of real indignation or real political calculation? Is the president in bed with Wall Street and if a light is cast on his coziness, does he spring from his den of iniquity to claim faux outrage at having just been under the covers with Wall Street, giggling and playing financial footsy?

The people will shape the leader. The technology and times have converged to create a powerful impetus for change. More voices can be heard more clearly, more nuanced, and more detailed. In our leader we have a man who sweats the details and can glean an appropriate response from that reading. Is that a politician -- You bet! Mr. Obama needs to be a politician and a darn good one. How can you fix that you know nothing about? It is his activist heart that the people must continue to touch and that will insure he does the right thing. He will keep America safe along with an intelligence community, law enforcement apparatus, and military that do their respective jobs to the highest level of professionalism. The economy will recover and the society will be transformed only if...

[research]

Yes.

Put the FED under control of the Treasury.

Lincoln issued Greenbacks with no private banker interest to pay.

The Constitution give congress the sole authority to create money.

The democratically Government MUST control the money supply or bubbles and crashes will continue.

[stewpro]

Ms. Kohn,
Thank you fro your comments. The Industrial Revolution is over. I heard this from a commodities trader in Chicago on "Squawk Box" this morning (3/6/2009). His analysis is that profits will continue to be hammered until the next true job and income producer comes to America. I believe it is time for the Socialist Revolution. A Social Democracy as envisaged by Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders. Where will the jobs and industry come from? Let the people decide in a sane and sober fashion instead of the capricious whims of the market place. Capitalism is the tool of the Plutocracy. Socialism is the tool of a Democracy. Corporations and the very wealthy are inherently greedy, shortsighted and will put the needs of the common good last. This has to be apparent in the current economic collapse. The biggest challenge we face to ensure a Social Democracy takes root in America is Health Care and Education. One of my favorite parts in Michael Moore’s “Sicko”, was an interview with an elder British statesman, whose name I cannot recall. In it he stated, and I am roughly paraphrasing, “A healthy and educated citizen is a more difficult citizen to manipulate than one who is constantly in peril for lack of medicine and lack of knowledge”. National Health Care and guaranteed college education for every citizen must be the cause. This is the path to holding the Plutocrats in check.

[WorkingClass]

Allowing the corporations to run the country is the root of our problems. K Street is institutionalized bribery. The antidote is public financing for public elections. Partisanship will not help. Both major parties are corporate parties. The antidote is instant runoff elections. Class warfare is very real. As matters stand "the people" are hopeless underdogs. The antidote is SOLIDARITY. American workers need to unite across divisions of race, gender, etc. to vote for politicians who will represent our interests.

[mamacat]

Ms. Kohn, I agree with you.

However, you mention public transportation as a victory for the people of America, while in fact light-rail public transportation in this country was eviscerated in the middle of the last century by a consortium consisting principally of Standard Oil (read Exxon and Chevron), General Motors, and Firestone. All across this country, light-rail mass transit systems were bought up and shut down by this group.

For instance, Southern California went from having the largest light rail system in the world, with the most ridership, to having the tracks torn up out of the ground and the rail cars stacked up and burned. Standard Oil et al insist and insisted that they closed the mass transportation system down because it was unprofitable and unpopular, but that then begs the question, why would they dilute the value of their own corporate shares with a useless and unprofitable light-rail system, even if it was the largest in the world, if it was unprofitable and unpopular? It couldn't have had anything to do with eliminating the competition, could it?

Unfettered corporate greed is not something that only started during the Bush administration, although it has gotten completely out of hand under the Republicans.

[Yermammy]

You are so right. First thing, how do we get the Media to tell the truth? How do we activate for that?
NO mention of Leahy's truth commission proposals on most news outlets. WHY?
Oh I know why, I'm just asking you HOW? I'm ready to activate! HOW?