I want you to imagine a country where the government doesn’t serve the people, but instead, the government works for corporations. Within this country, the citizens are left suffering and are in constant turmoil while the government spits out broken promises and false visions of a better tomorrow. At the same time, politicians are being bought, sold and traded off to companies and organizations like they are cattle at an auction house. If you are thinking that this imaginary country sounds very familiar, then you won’t be shocked when I tell you that this “imaginary” country closely resembles the current political system in the United States of America.
Currently, there are a vast number of ways that businesses, corporations and organizations can manipulate legislation in their favor in the United States. While some of these methods are more effective than others, the methods that require the businesses or corporations to directly or indirectly pay any amount of money to a politician are the most effective. In my opinion, these methods should be illegal because it allows any big and greedy businesses to become the puppet masters of any purchasable politicians. I am honestly incredibly surprised that these methods are not considered bribery due to the fact that in Bribery of public officials and witnesses, JM 9-85.101 it states that bribery is “The first offense, codified in section 201(b), prohibits the giving or accepting of anything of value to or by a public official, if the thing is given ‘with intent to influence’ an official act, or if it is received by the official ‘in return for being influenced.’” Exactly. Why the fact that corporations giving money to politicians to help influence legislation isn’t considered bribery, when they are essentially doing exactly what is legally considered bribery, is beyond me.
Today, many people consider lobbyists to be ‘sleazy scuzzballs’ whose sole purpose is to enact the indecent biddings of the big corporations and organizations in this broken country. I wholeheartedly agree with these people’s resentments towards lobbyists because I believe that corporations shouldn’t have the advantage over the general public by having access to a middleman that has a direct line of communication with politicians. This situation is very unfair to the majority of the American people because it doesn’t give them the voice that they are promised by the constitution.
My biggest issue with politicians taking money from corporations to influence legislation is that these politicians are supposed to represent and serve the people and not just the bigwigs in charge of these huge corporations. In my opinion this issue is a glaring flaw within the U.S. political system since the more money someone has, the more influence they have on the laws and regulations that chances are only benefit them. The fact that this country was founded as a way to end the tyranny and injustice of the King of England only for us to fall into the same trap once again. As a result of this unfortunate predicament, the general public is left behind in the dust and are forced to deal with the consequences from the political auction house.
Disclaimer: This article is the sole opinion of Andrew Chase.
Andrew Chase can be contacted at:
opinions@kscequinox.com
