The Money Power Party!

The Money Power Party!

I like to listen to Noam Chomsky. He is considered the most quoted and active intellectual extent. He is a ground breaker in his field, Linguistics, and he has been a social and political activist since his childhood. He often mentions the "Money Power Party" and how our democracy is "non functioning". That sound pretty crazy to most people who consider our democracy strong and our two party system viable. His goal is not to insult or ridicule our country or it's institutions, rather to strengthen and preserve them. But to do that we have to be honest and see the process and the players for what they truly are not what we want them to be. Let me explain.

I will start with a few statements that everyone agrees with. We elect Congressmen and Senators to develop and pass legislation to govern our country. This legislation is then signed by the President and becomes law, or is vetoed and starts a whole new process by which it is shelved or is passed by means of an override vote in both houses. Almost everyone would also agree that Congressmen and Senators are influenced everyday by lobbyists who represent large corporations and special interest groups. Lobbyists sometimes actually write drafts of legislation and help maneuver it through committees and sponsors. Corporations are not democracies. They are entities governed by CEOs, Boards of Directors and to an extent shareholders. Nothing groundbreaking in any of those statements, just simple fact.

From those statement one can then say...If non democratic corporations and special interest groups dominate the mechanism of legislation and those who pass it, and if they influence both parties equally and do not answer to voters, then there is only one political party, which we can call the Money Power Party, and that party runs a non functioning democracy in which voters are only pawns who decide which party approved candidates are elected.

Now for the solution. Campaign Finance and Election Reform!!!!!! How can we fix the legalized bribery that is Washington D.C. and our State Capitols? Good question, figuring that out is my personal journey.