Corporate Fascism Dominates Our Political System
by Thomas Baldwin
Biloxi, MS July 4, 2014
Whether one uses the term Corporatocracy, Corporatism, Corporate Fascism, or the Corporate State, these terms all mean a complete merger of the corporations with the state. One can also argue that a Plutocracy or Oligarchy in a capitalistic system also strongly signify a strong relationship between corporations and the wealthiest elite. Sheldon Wolin introduced a term, "Inverted Totalitarianism". What all of these suggest is that the wealthiest elite have gained complete control of our government (the state) and rule; it is antithetical to a democracy where the people rule. These systems are completely incompatible and cannot coexist.
Since our political system is totally dominated by two political parties (a duopoly) this means that the only people or bodies that control our government are the wealthiest elite who are part of a corporate structure. The term "duopoly" is even somewhat misleading because both parties are actually two wings of a Corporate Fascist "Party." Thus, if we are going to make any significant changes in our system we must attack the source of the problem. The place to start, if we want to proceed peacefully, is to put an end to the political duopoly--destroy it! If two major businesses controlled all of the means of production and distribution of a product then antitrust laws would apply and the duopoly would be declared illegal. But in the U.S. the laws are written and passed by the political structure and they are quite happy to save their jobs in the current duopoly and protect it from competition. So the people have to do it! It is INSANE to keep voting for one of the two party candidates (the lesser of evils) and expecting any positive changes to occur.
In previous blogs, I have written about "Why Americans Must Destroy the Political Duopoly" and create new alliances. If progressives want to have any influence in the political system they must unite various progressive organizations and possibly form a United Progressive "Party". It cannot happen in the present two-party system because the "money" does not exist to make it happen. And it is naive to keep thinking a political "party" can compete without a strong movements to support it. The duopoly immediately works to destroy any "third"-party effort. Even the Tea Party "success" is deceptive in that it has become a right-wing conservative Republican effort controlled by wealthy interests.
Thus, I am strongly proposing that people announce their independence from the political parties as Step 1. Don't support Democrats or Republicans running for national elected office! Don't give them any money and don't work in their campaigns, especially if they take corporate money or are supported by corporate money in any form. Whatever you do will be completely swamped by the infusion of corporate money! And the Supreme Court has assured that, first with the Citizens' United decision in 2010 followed by the McCutcheon decision in 2014. Limitations on donations have been completely removed and a billionaire or large powerful corporation can "buy" any election or multiple elections they wish. In fact, the Koch Brothers worth nearly 100 billion dollars and two of the richest men in the world are trying to do just that. And once they elect their stooges from one of the two parties, then they begin to write the laws and regulations to cut their taxes and protect themselves from the regulatory agencies. This has been going on for many years, but it has become critical.
Joel Hirshhorn in Dandelion Salad has recently written an excellent article describing this reality. And two professors, Martin Gilens and Benjamin I. Page at Northwestern Univ., have recently shown conclusively with an exhaustive study that the average person in the U.S. has NO influence on public policy. It is a total myth (or lie) that we live in a democracy. The people are totally brainwashed by a corrupt corporate media that spends billions propagating that lie on behalf of their political cronies. Corporate "news" is nothing but corporate propaganda and that includes much of what passes for news about our foreign interventions. We seldom get the truth that our invasions are all about acquiring resources (particularly oil). And we are told that we are "spreading democracy" or giving "humanitarian" aid. Of course we killed hundreds of thousands of Iraqis in the name of protecting us from "terrorism", didn't we? And now that country is in a shambles after we "won" the war for peace. And no one has been held accountable for this disaster. How long, oh how long, are we going to allow these political criminals from both political parties to feed us lies and enrich themselves with corporate money??
Corporatism is defined as a complete merger of corporations with the state (or governments). This brief section will describe how the system works and why it is so difficult to change. The center of the diagram is where the Power is located and in cases of extreme Capitalism (Corporatism), that is almost entirely Money! Note the people are placed outside the "circle of influence" and essentially unable to effect any changes. The Corporate Fascists are shielded from the people by the governmental institutions. As I stated earlier, Corporate Fascism is antithetical with a democracy or a democratic Republic which our system was designed to be. In effect, the People should be in the center of this diagram for a democratic system to work and the Corporatists should be on the outside--a completely inverted diagram!
With the Citizens' United and McCutcheon decisions by the Supreme Court in 2010 and 2014, respectively, the Corporatists' power has been greatly enhanced and the "shield" placed around them greatly strengthened even by the SCOTUS. They are now free to completely own the politicians in the political duopoly. In effect, the political system in the U.S. has been rendered totally impotent to represent the citizenry. The historical analogy between this and what happened in the 1930s in Europe (Italy and Germany) is striking.
Our representatives in the Executive and Legislative (and even the Judicial) branches of government work for the Corporatists, not for the people. The Corporatists are both their sources of power and money! This explains why the Congress has its lowest approval rating in the history of an off-election year, 16% as recently measured by Gallup and as low as 10% by other polling groups. It has actually been recorded not long ago as being less that 10%. And Obama's approval rating is sinking to new lows, too, and following a similar path to Bush's in his last term. Chris Hedges has spoken and written eloquently many times regarding our deteriorating conditions under the present system. Here is just one example in a talk entitled, "Third World America."
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