Just before I headed out to the Museum on my bike today, I made the mistake of tuning in a mid-day news telecast; and there on the screen was Representative Darrell Issa pontificating from his chairperson’s desk in meeting room of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee… and that set me thinking.  In his relentless pursuit to undo the Affordable Care Act, Issa, the wealthiest member of the House of Representatives, was called out in the meeting by Representative Jim Cooper, a Democrat from Tennessee for turning a committee hearing about the Affordable Care Program into kangaroo court.  “The American people do not want to see a kangaroo court here,” Cooper said.  Issa responded to Cooper by saying, “‘Kangaroo court’ is quite an accusation… and I hope the gentleman from Tennessee, when he uses the term kangaroo court in the future, will think better of making an accusation.”  Issa knows something about courts and accusations.  He has quite a personal record of dodging remarkably well founded, thoroughly documented accusations in court about some of the ways he came into his great wealth.  Details of Issa’s personal misdeeds are easy to find with a simple Google search.  However, that’s not what got me thinking on my ride today. 

I was thinking about whether or not there is a possibility that the United States, which I have a always thought of as the champion of democracy in the world, could one day, become considered by other nations to be a plutocracy.  A plutocracy is a country that is ruled by its richest citizens ( from Greek, πλοῦτος, ploutos “wealth,” and κράτος kratos “power.”).  A democracy is a country that is ruled by the people (from Greek, δῆμος “people,” and κράτος kratos “power.”) The idea in a democracy is that all citizens have equal rights with all other citizens. Of course, all citizens in the U.S. may vote, and all votes have the same value… It’s not as simple as that.

No one doubts that in American politics, money is power.  The Supreme court in a 2010 ruling approved a system for funding candidates and proposals for amendment to law that gave to political action groups nearly unlimited power to pour as much money into elections as they could get their uber-wealthy members to contribute. The Koch brothers, Jamie Dimon, and Sheldon Adelson obviously have the right under law to buy whatever mansions and jets and companies they wish to own. It is simply not reasonable in a democracy, however, for them to have the right to buy election results by pouring money through their super pacs into the campaigns they favor.

Anyone wishing to know more about money power in politics can start an Internet exploration of the problem with the following wikipedia post: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citizens_United_v._Federal_Election_Commission