Long story short, big businesses really don't care who is in office, so long as they cater to their interests. So, it should come as no surprise that the minute the election results come in, businesses switch sides and start cutting checks to the winning party, no matter who their "first choice" was during the campaign. Some might call it hypocrisy, but hey, this is a business, and if I can insure that my Representatives are privvy to my interests and cater to my demands, who cares what side of the aisle they speak from?
The inevitable tragedy is that public servants, who are elected to serve the public interests of their constituents, end up serving the private interests of whichever corporations fund their election campaigns. And trust me, private companies would never invest in powerful lobbyists and campaign "donations" if they did not fully consider them investments, leverage tools for gaining cooperation in the future. I believe there are smart and principled people in Congress who want to make a difference, but at the end of the day, they must know that if they are kicked out of office, their potential for effecting positive change is equal to zero.
The whole thing got me thinking. Who else shamelessly profits off the ephemeral shifts in public opinion? Who else falls prey to bitter divisions and irrational prejudices while someone else robs them blind?
SNEETCHES!!!
I hope that, after a robust public finance system is instituted and the influence of high-power lobbyists is corroded, we can look back and laugh at a system of politics that looked more like Dr. Seuss than democracy. John Dewey said it best:
As long as politics is the shadow cast on society by big business, the attenuation of the shadow will not change the substance.
