Corporatism…
Fascism only a demagogue away
By Glenn R. Jackson
The 2004 election cycle is well behind us and half of the 2005 legislative year has also gone by the board. I thought it would be worthwhile to dig through the record for a few details to help understand what our political fortunes have wrought.
In Georgia there was an all-important Senate race, one where Republicans hoped to convert a Democratic seat to the Republican side of the aisle. (This was Zell Miller’s Senate seat, and yes he WAS a Democrat. Unfortunately for the Democrats they found out painfully why Georgian’s in the know have referred for years to Zell as Zig Zag Zell. Could anyone but Zig Zag Zell have given the nomination speeches for both Bill Clinton and George W. Bush?) And while the Democratic nominee for Zell’s old seat was really a lightweight (a ONE term congresswoman elected with Republican help in order to defeat arch-crazy Cynthia McKinney) this senate race attracted some major attention. The Republican candidate was the three (3)-term congressman Johnny Isakson, who won a bruising Republican primary for the honor to be Georgia’s next Republican Senator.
Why so much attention for this Senate race?
As with all things political these days it is best to “follow the money.” In doing that we find the Republican National Committee, for whom this race had obvious importance, contributing a sizeable $164,000. The RNC, through its Senatorial committee, sought to garner that elusive Senate majority in order to give the President a filibuster proof Senate. The President made his filibuster proofing need a part of his stump speech whenever he appeared in a contested state. So the RNC had a clear stake in the race and contributed in kind.
Yet the RNC’s commitment paled next to the massive contributions made to Isakson’s Senate campaign by the National Association of Realtors PAC. What was the dollar amount of the NARPAC contribution to the Isakson campaign? An incredible $683,000 independent contribution! Four times the RNC’s money!
And they were not the only business interest interested in the Isakson candidacy, to name but a few:
Bellsouth $7000
Cingular $7000
Coca-Cola $10,000
Delta Airlines $7500
SmithKline $10,000
Coca-Cola PAC $7500
Wal-Mart $10,000
Even Halliburton’s PAC contributed $2000, and the list of others goes on and on, business PAC after business interest.
And yes, hedging their bets, many of the same PACs contributed to a lesser degree to the Democratic candidate. Which makes the point, U.S. political fortunes are no longer about ideology. “We the people” are governed today by the best government money can buy.
Which is also to say that we are ruled.
Today America finds itself in the first stages of a plunge to Fascism, i.e. Corporatism – the merging of state and business interest. Better said perhaps that business and economic interest overweigh and push aside individual and national interest. How else to explain the “in your face” immigration enthusiasm of the Bush administration, and the easy rollover of corporate America to aiding and abetting a bilingual America? Corporate America, that once resisted mightily the cost of putting warning labels – in English – on packaging of any kind, now willingly places bilingual signage in every store and on every package.
Corporate interest, no…corporate citizenship… has usurped the U.S. citizenship rights of Americans. President Bush speaks over and over about creating an “ownership” society in America, meaning in large part ownership in corporate stocks. Privatizing Social Security is one part of this President’s ownership push, but privatization is really just one more chain binding together state and business interest.
Corporate money is buying the political leadership sympathetic to, or outright sold out to, corporate interest. Individual citizens’ interest and concerns may be given lip service, but $600,000-plus contributions to place or keep a candidate in office cannot help but be the loudest “noise” any Senator or politician can hear.
“Campaign finance” laws have only served to dampen the voice of citizen groups, while the big money continues to roll. Is there any doubt that the national interests of the United States are cast aside in favor of corporate and economic interest?
With the drumbeat of war overriding the thinking of many Americans, and corporate money buying the loudest voices and the biggest megaphones, corporatism has taken root and fascism is only a demagogue away.
Glenn R. Jackson is the founder of the American Reformation Project, Board Member of Hire American Citizens, and Member National Board of Advisors for FAIR (Federation for American Immigration Reform). Glenn was a founding Board member and first President of the National Association for the Employment of Americans (NAEA), and organizer of American Jobs Coalition (organizations fighting against the American Worker Replacement Program). Glenn is also a former State Chairman for Buchanan 2000 Presidential campaign, and former state Chairman of the Georgia Freedom Party (a Reform Party affiliate). Glenn holds an MA in Philosophy from Georgia State University in Atlanta.
© Glenn R. Jackson