The Question Mark Was Unnecessary

Headline in today's newspaper:  Industry Donations, Ruling Tied?

By "industry," they mean the oil/gas/fracking industry.  "Ruling" means the Ohio Supreme Court's recent decision which forbids local governments from regulating drilling, etc.  It's merely the latest in a long line of similar decisions*, here and elsewhere, in which "the oil and gas industry has gotten its way."  (So said Justice William O'Neill, a dissenter in the 4-3 ruling.)

The question mark in the headline was unnecessary.  Totally.  The article goes on to list a number of politicians and judges whose palms were greased by cash from the frackers.  That's pretty sad, but not at all surprising.

This post is not about fracking.  It's about our pay-to-play political system, a Beast which runs on money, and ever more of it.  The frackers are just one tawdry example of the sleazy system which is our reality.  (Don't ask me how to change it, but opening the floodgates to more money, removing all barriers ala Citizens United and McCutcheon, is clearly a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad idea.)

Some of the more conservative persuasion often try to rationalize this stinking mess with a glib dismissal:  "Everybody's doing it."  Meaning Democrats and Republicans alike are slaves to the Beast, and both sides are awash in non-stop cash contributions.  True enough.  But it doesn't mean it's all the same, with all the same strings attached, no difference.

No, this post is about where the money comes from.  That's much more instructive than the "everybody's doing it" brush-off.

What is the source of the money?  How much money?  To whom is it given?  How often?  And, most importantly, what is expected in exchange?

One side is funded by Wall Street/Big Banking, the oil and gas industry, Big Medical/Big Pharma, military and defense contractors, the NRA, mega-billionaires like Charles and David Koch and Sheldon Adelson, and the majority of the undisclosed "dark money" 501(c) donors.  What do you suppose they want?

The other side has mega-billionaires like Tom Steyer, who's a clean-energy entrepreneur/environmentalist, and financier/philanthropist George Soros, plus a bunch of labor unions -- public employees, teachers, carpenters, plumbers, autoworkers, firefighters and pilots.  And what do they want?

Which group has society's bests interests in mind?  Which group's desires align more closely with your own?

Myself, I'd much rather talk with a school teacher than with Sheldon Adelson.

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(*Still not a post about fracking, but you might recall that not too long ago, fracking was considered by the industry to be a rather inefficient and expensive technique.  It was also prohibited under the rules of the federal Clean Water Act.  Then in 2005, George W. Bush signed an executive order exempting the fracking process from the law.  You know the rest.  And how come when Dubya signs an executive order, it's OK, but when Obama does it, people turn ugly?)