POLITICIANS HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH PEOPLE

The vast majority of us are ruled by a powerful few, and we know about virtually NONE of it.

We stopped being a democracy a long time ago and anyone who believes otherwise is beyond naive.

America is an oligarchy ( a government in which a small group exercises control over a country especially for corrupt and selfish purposes). 

  

Big government and big corporations alone would be bad enough, but when they work in tandem with each other, looking out for each other’s interests, that’s where it gets super scary.

The modern, seamlessly sophisticated  "revolving door" syndrome is one of the most successful, overtly corrupt incestuous systems that exists under most Federal, State, County, and Local forms of Government, among all political parties in the United States.

Although the influence powerhouses that line Washington's K Street are just a few miles from the U.S. Capitol building, the most direct path between the two doesn't necessarily involve public transportation. Instead, it's through a door,this revolving door that shuffles former federal employees into jobs as lobbyists, consultants and strategists, just as the door pulls former hired guns into government careers. 

While officials in the executive branch, Congress and senior congressional staffers spin in and out of the private and public sectors, so too does privilege, power, access and, of course, money.

Revolving Door: Former Members

Dick Armey,Tom Daschle,Trent Lott, Jon Kyl, Howard Berman. etc. Once, these politicos ranked among Congress' most powerful members. Today, they share another distinction: They're lobbyists (or "senior advisors" performing very similar work). And they're hardly alone. 

Dozens of former members of Congress now receive handsome compensation from corporations and special interests as they influence the very federal government in which they used to serve. See where members of the 112th Congress (CLICK HERE) and the 111th Congress (CLICK HERE) have gone.

In fact according to Bloomberg News-CLICK HERE-Since the November elections, at least 22 members of the last Congress took jobs with lobbying firms, running trade associations or handling government relations for organizations. That is an increase of 14 percent over 2012 in the number of former lawmakers now in the lobbying business, according to the Washington-based Center for Responsive Politics,which tracks ex-lawmakers’ employment. Since 1998, a total of 338 former members of Congress have worked as lobbyists or joined such firms for at least some of their time since leaving office.

The data above and below shows in painstaking detail just how corrupted our political system in the United States has become.

These are perfect visual representations of how what should be our government has become a government that serves corporate interests to the detriment of the American people.

Special Interest Groups

Sector Totals, 2013-2014

Rank	Sector	Amount	Dems	Repubs	To DEMS To REPUBS
1	Finance/Insur/RealEst	$86,807,627	34.5%	57.4%
2	Other	$53,170,301	49.8%	39.8%
3	Ideology/Single-Issue	$46,344,049	38.1%	40.8%
4	Misc Business	$45,601,415	37.2%	55.9%
5	Health	$33,501,701	41.0%	55.4%
6	Lawyers & Lobbyists	$32,538,353	63.5%	33.6%
7	Labor	$24,911,797	57.3%	8.3%
8	Communic/Electronics	$24,250,960	54.4%	38.3%
9	Energy/Nat Resource	$21,305,062	22.1%	75.4%
10	Agribusiness	$15,495,565	26.5%	70.3%
11	Construction	$14,577,176	24.8%	64.7%
12	Transportation	$14,047,545	27.3%	70.8%
13	Defense	$8,548,697	40.0%	59.8%

The above data was obtained from the Center For Responsive Politics (CLICK HERE).

When I look at the the above financial connections of Corporate America it makes me wonder how anyone thought that people actually had the brazenness to claim that those pointing out the revolving door between Wall Street and Washington are conspiracy theorists.

Take the White House’s move to block the release of a Monsanto-linked lobbyist’s e-mail, for instance. This is hardly shocking when one considers the numerous connections the global corporation enjoys on Capitol Hill shown below.

Even when the products they are hawking are linked to birth defects and necrosis, these individuals seem to have no problem with actively circumventing everything democracy is supposed to be in order to pursue their corporate interests.

Just like the thoroughly reprehensible activities of the war profiteers who knowingly profit off of death, destruction and suffering, those who lobby for corporations like Monsanto are actively contributing to the problems of the many for the benefit of the few.

It’s truly disturbing to see all of this laid out in such an easily comprehensible manner, especially when one observes the high level positions many of these individuals either once held or currently hold.

Of course, this is only a small portion of the individuals involved in the widespread corporatist corruption that has infected so much of the United States.

There are countless connections to be explored and exposed, especially those which are thrown right in our faces, as is the case with the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC).

Corporatism, which can also be called crony capitalism is one of the most dangerous forces at work in the United States and the world.

It works to turn governments against the people they are supposed to be working for while not only reducing the standard of living for those who aren’t manipulating the system but also destroying the environment for future generations.

Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address has gone down in history as one of the most quoted speeches in American history.

Lincoln's lines at the conclusion, that "government of the people, by the people, and for the people, shall not perish from the earth" has been extensively quoted and cited as the essence of the American system of government.

In brutal reality what we have here in the United States is:
Government of the corporations, by the corporations, for the corporations.