Sociopathic Society: A People's Sociology of the United States by Charles Derber

Author:Charles Derber [Derber, Charles]
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Tags: Sociology, Politics, Social Justics, Non-Fiction, Economics, Democracy, Anthropology
ISBN: 9781612054377
Amazon: 1612054382
Goodreads: 17871430
Publisher: Taylor and Francis
Published: 2015-11-17T00:00:00+00:00

11

Kochamamie Democracy

Cockamamie: adjective. 1. Of poor quality, inferior 2. Silly; ridiculous

Texan oil and gas magnates David and Charles Koch, and a few other billionaires and multi-millionaires, such as Las Vegas casino tycoon Sheldon Adelson, are each pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into the elections, mainly to try to elect Mitt Romney as president and to ensure a Republican Congress. The unprecedented tsunami of big money into political campaigns—expected to total between $6 and $7 billion in the first presidential electoral season since the 2010 Citizens United Supreme Court case removed any limits on contributions—marks a qualitative shift from Constitutional Democracy toward what might be called “Kochamamie Democracy.”

In Constitutional Democracy, the guiding principle is one person/one vote. In Kochamamie Democracy, it is one dollar/one vote.

One dollar/one vote is the legal principle governing US corporations, with each shareholder entitled to the number of votes corresponding to his or her number of shares, deviating from the Constitutional principle that each citizen is entitled to equal voice, whatever their wealth.

Kochamamie Democracy thus represents the corporatization of American democracy. Billionaires such as the Koch brothers, who own the second largest privately held US corporation, Koch Industries, have pledged $100 million of their own money as well as to bundle at least $300 million more in their Super Pac, Americans for Prosperity, to elect Romney and help consolidate corporate control over US elections and the US government.

One dollar/one vote has been the established system of corporate governance for over a century, enshrined during the 1890s Gilded Age. Whatever its economic merits, it is a degraded system of national political government and helps explain why a 2012 international Commission on Elections, Democracy, and Security, headed by former UN secretary general Kofi Annan, singled out the United States as the most important example of a rising trend of “uncontrolled, undisclosed, illegal, and opaque” political and election financing that is deeply corrupting, comparing the United States highly unfavorably to other advanced democratic nations such as Canada.

Kochamamie Democracy has the following core attributes:

• Massive contributions from a tiny plutocratic elite. A study by the Center for Responsive Politics of political contributions in 2011–2012 showed that the 100 top donors to Super Pacs, mostly super-wealthy individuals, were 3.8 percent of all givers but accounted for more than 80 percent of all political contributions in the current race. Beyond the Koch brothers, Adelson has said that he will spend “whatever it takes” to defeat Obama and elect Romney, already contributing more than $100 million and suggesting he may spend two or three times that amount.

• Extreme low voter turnout. The United States now has the lowest voter turnout of all advanced democratic nations, with about 60 percent expected to vote for president this year. The other 40 percent, comprising more than 80 million adult Americans, mostly low income and the working poor, who support President Obama over Governor Romney by about 2 to 1 according to a recent Suffolk University poll of nonvoters, view the system as hopelessly rigged and believe the act of voting has become pointless.

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