US Oligarchy

The news yesterday carried two unrelated articles that tell the current political story very clearly. One is about how corporate lobbyists have so thoroughly killed Republican Congressman Dave Camp's tax reform bill that the Congressman will not run again for his House seat, even though he holds the important position of chairing the tax writing committee. The second is about the Supreme Court's decision in a case, McCutcheon v. Federal Election Commission, No. 12-536, that holds unconstitutional any limit on the total amount of money that a person can contribute to political candidates or entities.

In other words, we now live in an oligarchy of the wealthy, in which politics (and judges) are completely controlled by those who can and do provide unlimited funding. They will control, for their own benefit, decisions on all important public issues, from climate change to war. Citizens, even those who by normal standards would be regarded as wealthy, no longer have a realistic voice in their own political destiny.

The implications are not entirely terrible. After all, some of the most successful societies in history have been ruled in this way. Think ancient Athens, Republican Rome, and Great Britain between the Act of Settlement in 1701 and the 1st World War. 

More ominously, though, we now live in a world where the fortunes of these oligarchs are no longer tied to the conditions and destinies of the countries in which they live. If the US declines as its middle class shrinks, while certain other countries flourish, the American oligarchs will not be much affected. And if worse comes to worst and social revolution breaks out, they will--like the bin Laden family on September 12, 2001--simply flee to places abroad.  Basically, they don't have much stake in the national destiny.

This leaves the US in a position identical with traditional colonial possessions. The mother country could exploit the possession quite ruthlessly, because its authorities had little stake in the colony's well-being, and returned as little benefit as was absolutely necessary to the exploited territory.