The lie that many American people have been told throughout this country’s existence that their voting opinion mattered when it came to the primary presidential elections held every 4 years. However, this is sadly not the complete truth if one really deeply thinks about if they truly do have some sort of say in any of what’s going on in this democratic country. It seems that lately corporate ties to the government have only just recently been noticed by the majority of citizens, with over 74 percent of Americans deeming that large corporations have too much influence on politics[1]. This is especially true when implementing or changing important laws that only service their own interest and politicians in return, do their bidding in exchange for millions of dollars to fund their campaigns.
Throughout the last century, it seems as if this country is seeing a surge of toxic lobbyists in Washington, giving way to a tunnel-visioned government where almost nothing can get passed without it being hard-headed fights by our extremely polarized Senate and Congress.However, these motivations aren’t being fueled by the American people’s liberties, but of those that lurk behind the shadows that puppet our entire system and government as a whole. Some big time corporations have completely dismantled the way that democracy has so loyally worked around the world for thousands of years. For example Monsanto, the largest pesticide and genetically modified food producer, has about 12 members from the U.S. House of Representatives that co-own the Monsanto shares and even has close ties to the Obama Administration.This is especially evident when a few years ago many campaigns within different states put on the ballot whether or not produce and other foods should contain GMO labelling on their packaging as they do in the rest of the Western world.This in return brought about a storm of worries from the pesticide giant because of the already rooted health and organic movement the nation was and still is currently facing. With the scare and potential even defeat that Monsanto was about to receive, they poured over $46 million into lobbying against the GMO labelling bill, ultimately and unfortunately winning the fight by an extremely close 51 to 49 percent margin[2].
One extremely pushed aside political and corporational link is that of Hillary Clinton and the Keystone Pipeline bill.This extension to the already risky oil pipeline would have caused major harm to the surrounding environment, completely destroying the fragile ecosystem, with the high possibility of some mass extinctions to the wildlife population. However, the major proprietors of this bill paid Clinton $1.6 million for her to favor and advocate the passing of this bill[3]. Mrs. Clinton, former Secretary of State, has also been known to take many “donations” to the Clinton Foundation, a good-on-paper front, has racked up to $26 million in the act that she return political favors for almost 60 of the corporations that have donated[4].
But how is it possible to keep money out of the government? We as the people do however have the power to choose our representatives, and when we know who the righteous are and who is actually there for the American people, we can then breathe the fresh air of those in power to actually want to help those they so greatly toss aside and forget in a way where reverse-socialism becomes the norm for those blindsided by the truth.
[1] http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/06/03/busi...
[2] http://www.alternet.org/food/how-monsanto-using-cr...
[3] http://www.youngcons.com/hillary-clinton-paid-3-4-...
[4][4] http://www.wsj.com/articles/hillary-clintons-compl...
