“Capital Strikes Back.”
For the last several years, I’ve mused about the rise of the very rich in politics. To be honest, they’ve always been in politics but rarely as politicians. They saw as beneath them. The old robber barons use to walk into state legislatures, bags of money, and they literally bought the legislation. No more. Since the nineties at least, we’ve seen super rich take local, state, and federal offices. I’ve often wondered why.
In reading the book from the brilliant young scholar Keeanga-Yamahtta-Taylor entitled From #BlackLivesMatter to Black Liberation, I found the answer. Professor Taylor cites the 1976 book Ethics and Profits: The Crisis of Confidence in American Business by Leonard Silk and David Vogel, the two men interviewed top business leaders who expressed contempt for Congress. One businessman said, “It is up to each of us, not some prostitute of a Congressman pandering to get reelected, to decide what should be done.”
Get that? There it is. By buying media, think tanks, and yes, Congress itself, they built the false logic of businessmen being better at politics than politicians. Thus, see, the rise of that imperial idiot, Trump, creating chaos and disaster. Question answered.
From imprisoned nation, this is Mumia Abu-Jamal.
These commentaries are recorded by Noelle Hanrahan of Prison Radio.
