Artwork by Michael DiMilo
Article by Geoff Carter
You can’t say we weren’t warned. During his farewell address of 1961, President Dwight D. Eisenhower warned of the dangers of unfettered economic forces controlling the government, focusing particularly on what he termed “the military-industrial complex”.
“In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist. We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together.” (Eisenhower’s Farewell Address, January 1961: Ourdocuments.gov )
Eisenhower was right. The American military has grown exponentially in the last sixty years. Since that speech was given, the military budget grew from nearly fifty billion in 1961 to seven hundred and five billion today. The U.S. spends more on its military than the next top fourteen countries—combined. (Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, 2020 Fact Sheet). The United States spends nearly three times as much on our military than our nearest competitor, China. But Eisenhower shouldn’t have stopped there. “The huge industrial and military machinery” of which he spoke is, today, only the tip of the iceberg.
In the twenty-first century, big money is ubiquitous in—and almost synonymous with—U.S. government. Lobbyists from tech, energy, and drug industries pour money into representatives’ campaign funds incessantly, and—many times in direct opposition to the wishes of their constituencies—these representatives support legislation helpful to these same special interest donors.
A number of previously publicly-run entities like schools and prisons are now, with often disastrous results—being turned over to private corporations. States like Wisconsin have greenlighted private school voucher programs in which public money is used to send children not only to charter schools but to private, sometimes parochial schools. Privatization of prisons has grown almost exponentially since the 1980s. Today, nearly 1.5 million inmates are housed in private prisons. According to Kara Gotsch and Vinay Basti’s study “Capitalizing on Mass Incarceration: U.S. Growth in Private Prisons”, the two largest private providers collected nearly 3.5 billion dollars—taxpayer dollars—for their services.
Perhaps the most obvious—and dangerous—connection between big money and our democracy exists in ALEC, the American Legislative Exchange Council, an organization that offers membership to both corporate representatives and members of Congress. According to The Center for Media and Democracy, the composition of ALEC is overwhelmingly conservative, having received grants from Exxon Mobil, the Koch Family, the Coors Family, and the Allegheny Foundation. ALEC is reported to have 2000 legislative members connected with the legislature and 300 corporate members. To buy a seat, corporations are expected to pay anywhere from $7,000 to $25,000 yearly with additional fees contingent on membership in specific legislative committees called “task forces”. (Center for Media and Democracy: ALEC Exposed)
Members vote on proposals brought forth by these “task forces” (akin to legislative committees) in the organization. Those approved proposals are brought home by members to their respective statehouses masquerading as bills sponsored by those representatives, instead of the cookie-cutter legislation that it actually is. ALEC boasts that it is responsible for 1,000 of these bills being introduced every year. They proudly proclaim that one out of five of these bills pass. So, who exactly benefits?
According to CMD, Connections Academy, a private online education corporation, has benefitted from ALEC legislation aimed at privatizing public education and sponsoring on-line schools. Anti-immigrant legislation sponsored by ALEC has resulted in increased immigrant incarceration rates and resulting higher populations (and profits) for privatized prisons, specifically the Correction Corporation of America. Health insurance companies have benefitted from the ALEC sponsored Health Savings Account Bill in Wisconsin.
In short, ALEC functions as a sort of “shadow” legislature that is partly composted of elected representatives—our state and federal representatives—and corporate shills determined to advocate for legislation that will benefit their bottom line. When ALEC introduces legislation designed to curtail voting rights, the intent of this bill may not be, and is very probably not, entirely altruistic. The corporate co-chair might perhaps be a representative from the NRA, Exxon Mobil, or the Koch Brothers. They would all stand to benefit from a dominant Republican Congress, which these laws would help create. It might be helpful to note that legislation recently passed in Georgia and Florida, and which is pending in Texas, is very similar. One might speculate that these individual state bills originated from the same entity.
While we might like to think that our votes matter, that our elected members of Congress and Senators will advocate for their respective constituencies and support legislation that will benefit the general good, this does not seem to be the case.
Over the last year, public opinion polls have shown a majority of Americans favor stricter gun laws, yet despite the constant increase in gun violence, Congress does nothing. Sixty-nine percent of those polled believe prosecution of those involved in the Capitol insurrection is important, yet not one Republican senator voted in favor of installing a commission to study its causes. Over sixty percent of respondents believe that the U.S. should prioritize alternative energy development, yet public policy moves at a snail’s pace.
There is a clear and profound disconnect between the will of the American people and our government’s legislative agenda. There is a much more obvious link between ALEC, the corporate-controlled shadow legislature, and our lawmakers. Corporations are only influencing our lawmakers, they are aggressively advancing their own agendas by writing our representatives’ legislation. They are controlling our government.
Eisenhower was more right than he knew. He only feared the devil he knew, the military-industrial complex. The devil we know today was not even around back then; he was only a glimmer in his daddy’s eye.
Our democracy was designed to be transparent, to work in the light. That our laws are being written, and our money is being spent, by corporate lackeys who know nothing other than the bottom line is hypocritical and disgusting. I don’t want the Koch Brothers, the NRA, or big pharm to be writing the laws of my state or my nation, or to tell me how or when to vote. I want citizens of conscience to do it. If there any left in the Republican party, they need to gird their loins and step out of the shadows to protect their nation and their people.