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Democracy Died First in Wisconsin – Long Live the Oligarchs
The Wisconsin recall election was the first major test of the new era in American politics.
That new era began in January of 2010 when the US Supreme Court ruled in Citizens United v. FEC that the political voice of We The People was no longer as important as the voices of billionaires and transnational corporations.
Now we know the result, and it bodes ill for both 2012 and for the tattered future of small-d democracy in our republic.
A few of America’s most notorious oligarchs – including the Koch and the DeVos (Amway fortune) billionaires – as well as untraceable millions from donors who could as easily be Chinese government-run corporations as giant “American” companies who do most of their business and keep most of their profits outside the US – apparently played big in this election.
I say “apparently” because the Supreme Court has ruled that we no longer have the right to know who is really funding our election commercials, or even our candidates themselves.
Thanks to an irrational and likely illegal Supreme Court ruling, we have moved into an era of oligarch-run politics. As much as $40 million of our oligarch’s money was spent in Wisconsin in a handful of local races – a testing laboratory for strategies that will now be used against Democrats nationwide in 2012.
And so now we enter the battle of the oligarchs over the next fifteen or so months.
As the old saying goes, when the elephants fight, the mice get trampled. In this case, the mice aren’t just the voters. It’s democracy itself.
America is now – demonstrably, as proven by Wisconsin – just a few years away from the possibility of a totally corrupted, totally billionaire- and corporate-controlled political system. Political scientists call it oligarchy.
The Citizens United election experiment is over, and the oligarchs won. Long live the oligarchy.
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196 Comments so far
Show All"Just a few years away"? I think we're already there.
The followup article will be how if you don't get out and get active campaigning for Obama in 2012 then it's Your Fault.
Exactly right. Hartmann's about as gracious towards critics of the democrats as Rahm Emmanual.
Thom is one of the biggest advancers of fear mongering ('the republicans are coming! the republicans are coming!')--towards what end? to ensure neoliberal democrats keep their jobs? I've lost all respect for the man.
Policy over party!
Then why read him and get all worked up. There are thousands of right wing sites awaiting you.
Neoliberals ARE right wing, of the worst kind. Please America educate yourselves!!!
Then which candidate that has no chance to get elected, do you support?
I'm guessing you're part of the green dream.
You mean in the Prez election?
On Election Day 2012, nearly 14 months away?
Should we choose from Citizens at random to answer? Or are we confined to the folks that the media assures us intend to run in the Red and Blue Party Nominee Elections in New Hampshire over 5 months from now?
You act as if the Oligarchy is already in place, and not only are you comfortable with that, you feel scorn for those foolish enough to be uncomfortable with it!
No one should yet know who they will be voting for (or if they will be voting in) Party Nominee Elections -for ALL open Offices, not just Prez- next Spring, let alone where their mark will fall on Election Day next November (again, 14 months away!).
OBAMA might not even be an option then.
August 10th, 1967 was still 7 months before LBJ announced he would run again, remember.
-matti.
Yes, but unlike Obama, LBJ had -- and I thought I'd never say this -- a shred of integrity. Or at least common sense!
Yes Corvo and if Obama had a shred of integrity he would resign now. I have called for his resignation way back in 2010 with major increase of our troop involvement in Afghanistan.
Traitors should resign or be pushed out by MASSIVE protests as in North Africa/ Middle East
we need primary opposition to Obama or a true NEW progressive party: Time for Feingold, Kucinich and Sanders to Unite with Chowkovsky (Sorry can't spell her name) )from Illinois - a true smart progressive, although she is too timid in her proposed tax plan for which higher bracket should be 30% more and include a10% wealth tax for the wealthiest over $3 million with a $500k exemption for 1st home and personal property every year for 2-5 years. Yes it comes to about 40% of their wealth over 500K redistributed in 5 years. For elderly people at risk of losing their home due to low income the amount would be collected at death.
Amazing! The same people who urged us to vote for Obama want us not to vote for... (wait for it... wait for it... it's hilarious...) FEINGOLD, KUCINICH and SANDERS!
Yes, can't vote for Nader or McKinney.
Guess what - you guys were dead wrong on Obama, and now you trot in the back-up dead wrongs. Hope you guys are well paid, because if you're not, then you need to get over your Stockholm Syndrome and stop identifying with your captors.
Well I don't claim to be an expert but it seems the first really big neoliberal policy passed was NAFTA on Clinton's watch and it's been picking up steam ever since.
Reagan's first act was to fire the Air Traffic controllers was really the first draw of the neoliberal gunslingers, with the disbanding of the Fairness Doctrine being a wound that drew real blood from the democratic body politic.
I think the answer to that is most here are 'Common Dreaming'. That we'll finally see some fresh thinking, new faces (e.g. credible leadership) and most importantly –new ideas instead of this silly pissing contests from the usual subjects followed by the usual carpers that includes myself.
Perhaps some of us are seeking answers in the wrong places.
Obama is to the right of Bush even Pogoing fool. He has overseen a huge expansion of the wars and delivered the social safety nets on a silver platter to be shredded by the ownership class. No one believes any of this O-bot blather anymore, get it?
Diana, I have to agree with you on his fear mongering. And I wish he would have on his show some genuine leftists, instead of the usual liberals and conservatives. I want to see him debate someone who will challenge his fallacious assumption that progressives can take over the Dem party.
I still respect him for his historical knowledge which is great, but philosophically I simply oppose capitalism and get frustrated with people who can't see that this rotten system is destroying the planet. I wonder: If there were a populist, democratic-socialist revolutionary movement that was on the brink of success, would people like Thom Hartmann be with us, or would they urge everyone to vote for the John Kerry of the day? I hate to say it but I suspect the latter.
Hartmann doesn't allow anyone to the Left of him on his shows or website. He is as far left as is allowed. He also has rightwingnuts on all the time which helps push the debate to the right - thereby making him seem to be a true lefty and the only adult in the room. That is his strategy.
Worse, Thom is so inarticulate that he usually loses when arguing with a wingnut who can at least articulate talking points in complete sentences.
Have to disagree on this one, corvo, as I think Thom is very articulate and time after time demolishes the fatuous arguments of the libertarian and paleo-conservative pundits he has on.
Sorry, but in my book "articulate" means "able to finish most sentences without one lengthy irrelevant disquisition on early American history, two syntactic train wrecks, and half a dozen eeeeuuuuiiiiiaahhhhhhhhs." That, and he demolishes opposition arguments only to those already predisposed to recognize the manifest fallaciousness of those arguments. He's much too inarticulate to accomplish this on his own, and much too easily resorts to irrelevant and/or snide comments and attacks besides.
If he was articulate, he wouldn't have ended this piece with "Long live the oligarchy!" He didn't mean that.
"the king is dead long live the King"
I know it sounds contradictory but that's how it's said . It is grammatically correct!
People who are on the active front of movements for change can become discouraged at times...Is it 'the king' or 'the King'? Unofficial or no? Thom has been much more effective in dispensing with his con-servative guests of late--taking one b.s. point and riding herd with it. he used to be much less aggressive in rhetorical behavior. He does gravitate toward politicians and authors. I would like to see some highly incisive, glib leftist folks on his show ()myself) to offer viewpoints such as those on this forum.
I think talking radical truth pulls the discussion our direction rather than the incessant whining and complaining about 'what they're doing'. We relegate ourselves to the organizational state of cry babies when most of what we are talking about the tea party pissing or the latest, most outragest act of blow-dried dimwits.
The idea, though, is to gather enough momentum behind people wanting and able to participate to elect some real progressives, who must run for office first, to be elected...
Great point you and MemoryHole make! The number of right wing guests he has on, and the amount of valuable air time he gives them, says it all. (It's also an exercise in vanity disguised as modeling democratic talking points: Watch as the great democrat Hartmann defends us against the big, bad republicans.)
Yesterday a critic of the democrats who was running for office as a progressive called, criticizing Thom for not having other voices on the show, and hartmann simply said 'good luck and goodbye'--but politely, as the 'only adult in the room.'
I have serious doubts about Thom and his remaining support for Obama. I trust Norman Goldman who has attacked Obama relentlessly on health-care reform for example.
In his defense, he would say that the ideology of these wingnuts needs to be exposed and challenged in debate, which Hartmann does. That is one of the good things that he does. But the problem is, the viewpoint of Democratic loyalists like himself needs to be challenged too, and he almost never permits it. (I can think of one occasion, during the 2004 election, when Hartmann debated Kevin Meese of the Nader campaign on the air--Meese trounced him.)
Anytime someone calls who challenges his assumptions and calls for a third party on the left, they get cut off quickly. I want to see him have someone like Michael Parenti on--but it'll probably never happen.
I'd like to see Parenti on a lot more shows.
I'd love to see John Trudell interviewed.
When in fact, the ideology of Obamanuts is what Thom needs to challenge.
Whoops - he's one of them. Wish he would go away.
If you do get out and campaign for Obama, then you are supporting the oligarchy. Face facts.
Sorry to have to admit it, but this was the last chance for democracy. I went to grad school in Madison and I know how it is there. If it couldn't be saved there, it doesn't bode well for the USA. This democracy experiment was the experiment that failed. The only thing I wonder now is whether our new oligarchy will be able to get people to serve the country. I suppose it will be like Nazi Germany. They were able to get military folks. Who knows, they might even get paid.
There is no 'last chance' for democracy. What has failed is capitalism. It has proven time and again that it is incompatible with a populist democracy. But democracy per se is never dead until it no longer even exists as an ideal. The struggle goes on.
I have to wonder if Thom has been on the ground in Wisconsin. I have, and what I see is democracy being born, not dying. Yes, the recall effort failed to win Democratic control of the state senate. But the movement is not dead. Not by a long shot. And Scott Walker remains an unpopular figure in Wisconsin. In many ways, the movement is just beginning. Stay tuned.
As long as the movement doesn't allow itself to be co-opted and neutered by a party that doesn't give a damn about it (and yes, I mean the Dimocrats), the movement has a chance.
You mean vote for the "OLIGARCH IN CHIEF"? U must be kidding man
"Fool me once....fool me twice...: as G Bush liked to say.
WE have aright wing Republican in the White house facing a group of extremists driven by greed + power and often lack of knowledge of the Constitution or the bill of rights, let alone HISTORICAL facts Thom points out daily and in his books.
Read unequal protection!
Absolutely ... Thom is one of the great disappointments in so-called "progressive" media.
Thom is not just a "disappointment," Z-Man, but I find him incredibly dangerous.
The meme he projects always starts with, "Since the Republicans..." This frame (which ironically comes from the author of a book all about the need to use the proper "frame") by implication vindicates the Democratic Party and pushes listeners toward the specious Lesser-of-Two-Evils argument. (Hint, Thom, it should be "Since the Corporations...")
Thom is a capitalist (he even pimps for a doctor who is nothing more than a quack), a hypocrite of the first order, and his "read" on American history is incredibly myopic.
Please, Thom, go away!
Come on, OP! This is America. Radio is almost wholly commercial and completely commercial for independent programing like his show. Being on commercial radio he has to carry advertising to survive. You take what you can get.
Oh give me a break. I don't agree with him either on the Democratic Party. I however, and I say this as a socialist, don't see a coherent alternative to neo-liberal capitalism that the left is rallying around. They exist, but most aren't even aware of the alternatives that have been proposed or the various (what the radical economist Robin Hahnel calls) "experiments of equitable cooperation". They certainly by and large don't know what they are FOR (I should know, it is one of the first questions I ask of other activists when we start to talk about the issues), outside of hazy, vague nothing comments. They know what they are against, what are they for? What coherent, concrete policies are people for? If corporations are horrible institutions, which I think they are, should we think about or rally around alternative institutions? If democracy is crumbling, how should we make it more participatory? I don't see any coherent response. I don't have one entirely yet, and I have been thinking about it for a long time. It is easy to attack him for not having a great idea about how to solve this situation. Objectively, neither does anyone else on the left. At least not enough for a national movement to develop. So I would recommend being humble a bit, unless you are the one with the answers your own damn self. By the way some general nothing comments about revolt or general strikes aren't what I am looking for. We know generally what we on the left are against. What ideas, institutions, policies. What do we want to see take its place?
Having said that, I do listen to him a decent amount. I have the same criticisms about him that some on this comment section do. However, I have heard him describe himself as a democratic socialist. He has Bernie Sanders on every Friday. When pressed about what leftist alternative he would back he pointed to the Mondragon Cooperative. That alone earns him points with me. I don't know anyone else on the left on the radio who would ever even talk about the Mondragon Cooperative, I would bet most of them don't know what it is.
Is he radical enough for my liking? No, I don't think he goes far enough with his critiques of capitalism. So the hell what? One of Marx's biggest influences was David Ricardo. He fundamentally disagreed with Ricardo yet Ricardo helped shape Marx's ideas as much as any economist. Piero Sraffa was another economist influenced by Ricardo and he too was a socialist. I hope Thom doesn't go away personally. Even if he isn't perfect, there won't be any liberal better than him to take his place. I'll take what I can get. Ideological purity is really getting old with me.
I find it mildly interesting that neither of you have addressed my greatest critique of Hartmann. Every time I flick by his radio station, I seem to hear him faulting the Republicans for all our woes, as if the Dems had/have no part in it, or at least this is the implication.
Trust me, in one year, he'll be hammering home the need to go out and vote for 0. He is already reducing his meme to his favorite fear tactic: The Supreme Court. The Supreme Court. The Supreme Court!
I don't pretend to have all the answers (although I would begin by taxing the upper 5%, closing corporate tax loopholes and using the revenue to create Green jobs). But this is not what I attempted to point out in my original post. Z-Man said he was a "disappointment" and I pointed out that he is more than a disappointment, he is downright dangerous. So-called left-wing pundits like Thom will have us "infiltrate" the Democratic Party and force them "left," even while it is obvious that the SYSTEM is completely broken.
Only a Democrat can offer us Health Care reform with NO public option. Only a Democrat can escalate warfare with nary a whimper. Only a Democrat can eviscerate Social Security.
Personally, I find myself more aligned with Hedges, and I plan on being in DC on October 6th. Join with me, brothers and sisters!
Old peculiar is damn right "Only a Democrat can offer us Health Care reform with NO public option. Only a Democrat can escalate warfare with nary a whimper. Only a Democrat can eviscerate Social Security."
You mean only the kind of democrat we currently have in the White house and Congress. Even Nixon woiuld NOT have dared such anti-social and Imperialist policies without impunity (look at the bombarding of Cambodia: it had to be covert!).
.
Obama and Congress did not even reinstate Glass Steagall, the best piece of legislation that might have reversed what banks have been doing since 99 and are doing EVEN More than prior to 2008!
I don't know what you are talking about. I agreed with you on Thom and the Democrats. Did you understand what I was getting to when I mentioned Marx and Ricardo? I mentioned that the left in general doesn't have an alternative economic program, and I say that as a radical economist. These alternatives exist in theory and in practice in islands of sanity, but the left hasn't rallied around any coherent alternative. Your post is a great example of that. You on the one hand, correctly, point out how the system is fundamentally flawed then talk about a solution being some minor tax reforms and funding for green alternatives. Those are nice policies but say nothing of fundamentally changing a fundamentally flawed and unsustainable system. Like I said, if you ask people on the left what they are FOR they come up with general comments like the one you gave. They might talk about some vague third party ideas they have, or a general strike. Obviously not bad, but not enough. The right wing is crazy and illogical, but they at least have a coherent philosophy, institutions and set of policies. We are, at this point, not at all organized and we don't have a coherent alternative, a coherent platform, that people can work towards. We are basically a group in reaction against what we don't like. Like I said though with Thom, he mentioned things like the Mondragon Cooperative (which he has been to), he talks about democratic socialism and has democratic socialists like Sanders on every week. I don't agree with him on a number of things, nor do I have to. I appreciate him, as flawed as he is, because you and I are no better as far as having any real solutions to the problems we are facing. Until you can come up with something better I would suggest staying humble and not expecting perfection. I would also suggest, if you aren't already, getting involved yourself. If you have some good ideas spread them around to others and educate them. The Democrats are horrible, as are the Republicans. A working person SHOULD work to create alternatives outside of either party or electoral politics all together. By the way, the Supreme Court DOES matter big time. I am not saying that justifies voting for Obama, but don't diminish how much power the Supreme Court has now and how right wing they are.
he is indeed a "lesser than 2 evil" proponent unlike Norman Goldman (Check honesty and for the people in this guy!)
However his books like "Unequal protection" are MUST READ even though the focus is purposely narrow, not myopic!
The way they are spending money on elections we have apparently NOT yet arrived at where they want to take the country. That should send shivers down the spines of anyone who is paying attention.
Interesting point Tom.
That's right. I think their endgame is outright slavery, which they are quickly accomplishing by utilizing prison labor across the country. And of course, they will not quit until they have achieved total and complete repeal of any and all taxes and regulations. They want total freedom of action, and none of the responsibilities. They will plunder and pillage until they own everything, with no public lands left to preserve, no natural world anywhere. They will destroy the entire planet before they are through.
Yeap, I am waiting everyday for thom and others to phrase and push for the amendment to the Constitution which would reverse the Supreme court decision to allow an "election for sale" system
AND I HEAR ONLY SILENCE.
I"VE asked my elected officials (Democrats) what they have proposed or co-signed,. IN VAIN.... YET, this is the only quick answer even if it taakes years to ratify and it should not if representation of the people (not the corporations) is what our system iwas based on
Only ONE thing can save us now: ourselves.
We have to finally prove that we are the moral heirs to the rowdy, cantankerous, unruly rebel souls that took this fledgeling nation and wrested it from the grasp of the most powerful nation that the world had ever known. They did not do this in an event, in an uprising, in a march. They did it one day at a time, one bullet-riddled patriot at a time, one grieving family at a time that absorbed the loss and stood firm in the dream of freedom. Our freedom, our rights, our nationhood was bought in blood and tears and struggle and strife. It can only be regained with the same - or greater - effort.
The question we must all struggle to answer is whether we WANT it badly enough to pay the price - whether we will leave the anonymous comfort of our homes to take to the streets and to shout and shake our fists at power that will initially refuse to acknowledge that we exist, refuse to admit that we HAVE a political case to make, that will call us traitors and accuse us of hating the nation we are willing to die to save.
For yes, it will come to that. It already has. The bell has rung that should never have had to peal again across this land, and men and women are called out once more to pay the price of freedom. We must march boldly into the gaping maw of oppression and tear BACK a future for our children and our grandchildren. All we have is each other ... but we are Americans. All we ever HAD is each other, and that alone is a gift beyond measure. Let us again employ that gift in the service of mankind and our posterity. Let us show the world that this nation is NOT merely worth dying for on foreign soil ... it is worth LIVING for every day, worth fighting for against any oppression. There is no greater priviledge than to live in service to the American Dream. Unfurl the banner and let it begin. Here. Today.
"We must never forget that during the century and a half that has elapsed since the beginning of the labor movement, many more wrongs have been righted by direct pressure than by the initiative of jurists or the good will of the powerful."
-- Emmanuel Mounier
indeed. Come to DC and occupy Freedom Plaza "wisconsin-style". We cannot let business as usual continue -- it is literally killing us and others, degrading the environment, destroying the middle class and creating massive transfers of wealth to the richest 1%. support october2011.org, a people-led effort, to stop the machine and create a new world.
I suggest as the "INdignados" of Spain occupied Madrid's plazza and the Egytians Tahir square. Kick Obama out! Prosecute him and Bush junior +senior for Homicide and illigal wars, torture etc...