Privatizing Our Government--Barbara Lawton

Recently, much lobbying and over $200 million "invested" in campaign contributions, brought a nearly unanimous repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act, the "firewall" between bankers and brokers. The Act's primary purpose was to insure that U.S. financial firms remain competitive. Those bankers and brokers gave their $200 million in the interest of their shareholders.
U.S. Senator Phil Gramm's comment sets the scene, "We have a new century coming, and we have an opportunity to dominate that century the same way we dominated this century. Glass-Steagall, in the midst of the Great Depression, came at a time when the thinking was that government was the answer. In this era of economic prosperity we have decided that freedom is the answer."
There has been a fundamental shift in the relationshiop between government and business. Corporations increasingly forsake their social contract with the public, invest heavily in politics, and use their leverage to shift government away from the common good to profit for their shareholders.
Robert Reich noted that Microsoft is working to maximize his investment but doing so at the expense of his values as a citizen. Corporations have lost public conscience as they give shareholders what they want and ignore citizens. They have marginalized public interest and ignored the public sector that sets standards for private sector.
A political system wholly dependent on large campaign donations results in the buying and selling of politicians and parties by America's ruling class. In the last election the Wisconsin Legislature's Joint Finance Committee received $733,000 in political contributions from special interests. A $37,000 contributed to Gov. Tommy Thompson's campaign from a construction company brought them $29 million in a no-bid contract.
Republicans have announced that they are looking for 100 million donors. When one solicits like that they are putting government up for sale, and taxpayers will pay in millions for government favors and tax breaks to the donors. With a dying political life, cynicism reigns.
Real reform necessarily redistributes political power. And true reform will only happen with complete public financing of political campaigns. Only then will questions like inequity in our tax system, institutional racism, inadequate and inequitable funding of public education move to the center of public debate. Only then can we hope for a democratic government capable of assuming its proper role, even in the face of pressure from special interest groups.
The signs of hope are few. Jim Lehrer has reported that of the 12,000 people who indicated what issues should dominate the presidential campaign, campaign finance reform received the most support. Also, John Boniface, the leader of the drive to overturn the Buckley vs, Vallejo decision defending campaign contributions as free speech was recognized as a MacArthur genius this year. I take that as a sign of hope.
It is exciting that people are turning out to talk about reversing the privatization of our government, but we will not make the needed changes without hard work and a real grass-roots push.