From Robert Reich:
Wingnut mega-donor Sheldon Adelson has just bought the biggest
newspaper in Nevada, the Las Vegas Review-Journal -- just in time for
Nevada's becoming a key battleground for the presidency and for the
important Senate seat being vacated by Harry Reid. It’s not quite like
Rupert Murdoch’s ownership of Fox News and the Wall Street Journal, but
Adelson's purchase marks another step toward oligarchic control of
America – and the relative decline of corporate power.
Future historians will note that the era of corporate power extended for
about 40 years, from 1980 to 2016 or 2020. It began in the 1970s with a
backlash against Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society (Medicare, Medicaid,
the EPA and OSHA). In 1971, future Supreme Court justice Lewis Powell
warned corporate leaders that the “American economic system is under
broad attack,” and urging them to mobilize. “Business must learn the
lesson . . . that political power is necessary; that such power must be
assiduously cultivated; and that when necessary, it must be used
aggressively and with determination—without embarrassment and without
the reluctance which has been so characteristic of American business.”
He went on: “Strength lies in organization, in careful long-range
planning and implementation, in consistency of action over an indefinite
period of years, in the scale of financing available only through joint
effort, and in the political power available only through united action
and national organizations.”
Soon thereafter, corporations descended on Washington. In 1971, only 175
firms had Washington lobbyists; by 1982, almost 2,500 did. Between 1974
and 1980 the U.S. Chamber of Commerce doubled its membership and
tripled its budget. In 1972, the National Association of Manufacturers
moved its office from New York to Washington, and the Business
Roundtable was formed, whose membership was restricted to top corporate
CEOs.
The number of corporate Political Action Committees soared from under
300 in 1976 to over 1,200 in 1980, and their spending on politics grew
five-fold. In the early 1970s, businesses spent less on congressional
races than did labor unions; by the mid-1970s, the two were at rough
parity; by 1980, corporations accounted for three-quarters of PAC
spending while unions accounted for less than a quarter. Then came
Ronald Reagan's presidency, corporate control of the Republican Party,
and a Republican-dominated Supreme Court and its "Citizens United"
decision.
But in the early 21st century, a billionaire class emerged that didn’t
want or need to share political power with large corporations. Their
agenda was to reduce their taxes, enhance their wealth, and buy up the
nation’s major assets. The Koch brothers, Sheldon Adelson, Rupert
Murdoch, Dumbass Trump, and about three dozen other oligarchs began to
wrest power away from the Republican business establishment by funding
their own candidates, buying their own media outlets, and even running
for office themselves.
The rest is history. Or may be.
What do you think?
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