The young people of Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida see this situation with new and clear eyes. They see it for what it is: Corruption.
And they're mad as hell about how that corruption has led to the deaths of 17 of their friends and teachers.
Every new assault -- be it from an "active shooter" or a corporate raider -- shows us how the radical shift in the Supreme Court starting with the 1976 Buckley decision has turned America from a democracy into an oligarchy. Even former President Jimmy Carter came onto my radio/TV program in 2015 to proclaim it:
HARTMANN: Our Supreme Court has now said, "unlimited money in politics." It seems like a violation of principles of democracy. Your thoughts on that?CARTER: It violates the essence of what made America a great country in its political system. Now it's just an oligarchy, with unlimited political bribery being the essence of getting the nominations for president or to elect the president. And the same thing applies to governors and U.S. senators and congress members. So now we've just seen a complete subversion of our political system as a payoff to major contributors, who want and expect and sometimes get favors for themselves after the election's over. The incumbents, Democrats and Republicans, look upon this unlimited money as a great benefit to themselves. Somebody's who's already in Congress has a lot more to sell to an avid contributor than somebody who's just a challenger.
The most effective way to solve this problem is to pass a constitutional amendment that will proclaim, clearly and unambiguously, that corporations are not persons and that money is not "free speech." Groups like MoveToAmend.org and Public Citizen have been working on these campaigns for years, and they're bearing fruit.
Once the power of money is stripped from our political system, the power of gun manufacturers through the NRA will largely evaporate.
During the years I lived and worked in DC, several Republican politicians confided in me -- off the record -- that they would love to be out of the clutches of their wealthy donors. And that they'd quickly vote with Democrats to get free of the need to fundraise for hours every day. This could easily become bipartisan quickly, with the right leadership.
The NRA's essentially outright purchase of senators like Richard Burr ($6.3 million in 2016), Marco Rubio ($3.2 million in 2016), Roy Blunt ($3 million), and Rob Portman ($2.2 million) -- and Donald Trump ($30 million in the presidential race) -- is so obviously corrupt to many of the students in Parkland that they're furious.
We should all share their anger, and use it to fight to amend our Constitution to undo the damage these oligarchs and their toadies on the Supreme Court have done to our republic.
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
4
3
3
