An Election Bought & Paid for by Big Money
The Democratic and Republican conventions are upon us.
While we face falling living standards, cuts in social programs and the consequences of the wars that both parties voted for, the conventions of these two parties are awash in money, privilege and luxury. There could be no better symbol of today’s social and political reality.
The conventions have been paid for by a veritable “Who’s Who” of American capitalism, including 146 of the biggest companies, and many of the richest people in the country.
Among the big corporate sponsors for the Democratic convention are AT&T, ConocoPhillips, Staples, Level 3 Communications, Comcast Cable, Lockheed-Martin, Molson-Coors and Union Pacific. The Republicans were paid for by Cargill, Koch, Wells Fargo, US Bank and Waste Management.
Forty companies are giving at least a million dollars to each party for their convention, including Qwest Communications, which came out of the break-up of AT&T, United Healthcare, one of the biggest health insurance companies, Xcel Energy, the owner of big nuclear power plants, Medtronic, a maker of medical equipment and Eli Lilly, the giant pharmaceutical company.
These companies aren’t paying for advertising during the convention media circuses – we don’t hear anything about them. Nor are they paying just so their top executives and political operatives can hobnob during the 400 lavish parties, balls and concerts connected to the conventions.
No, these companies are picking up the tab for an important event for their friends in the Democratic and Republican political apparatuses precisely because both parties represent the capitalists’ interests.
It’s not only the conventions that big money pays for. The candidates themselves and their parties’ campaign chests have hauled in hundreds of millions of dollars from this same wealthy class.
The total amount of money raised by the Obama campaign has already approached 337 million dollars. Obama says his campaign depends on small contributions from large numbers of ordinary people. In fact, it’s true, a lot of people have given him their money, just as the unions have. Nonetheless, the bulk of his campaign money comes from millionaires, billionaires and those tied to them. These include partners at major law firms that represent big business, executives who work in Wall Street (Lehman Brothers, Goldman Sachs and Citigroup), big real estate developers, and the entertainment conglomerates (Time-Warner, Disney, Fox).
So far McCain has raised less: “only” 122 million dollars. But the Republican Party itself has taken in more money than has the Democratic Party. Among McCain’s major backers are “Woody” Johnson, the head of the Johnson & Johnson Company, big oilmen such as Robert Mosbacher and John Hess, FedEx chairman Fred Smith, Merrill Lynch CEO John Thain, and Cisco CEO John Chambers. Major executives at Wellpoint, Pfizer, Bank of America and Travelers Companies also lined up behind his candidacy.
Add to that the hundreds of millions of dollars that the corporations and the wealthy class funnel into supposedly independent political advocacy groups, often times anonymously.
The result is that literally over a billion dollars has already been spent on the presidential campaign alone.
That money is spent so that candidates representing working people can’t get a hearing. It’s spent to make sure that no matter who wins, the real winners will be the capitalist class.
As the saying goes, money talks. And in this country, big money has been talking through the Democratic and Republican Party since long before any of our lifetimes.