Inspiring and informative essay from Arnie Alpert, of the American Friends Service Committee–start of essay here, please click over to the AFSC website for the whole essay:
July 01, 2015
In 1776, the signers of the Declaration of Independence stated that government derives its “just powers from the consent of the governed.” But in these days of rising escalating economic inequality, unlimited campaign spending, and a multibillion-dollar lobbying industry mostly devoted to corporate interests, the consent of the governed often seems irrelevant in the corridors of power.
“Governing under the Influence” or “GUI.” That’s what we call the interconnected web of campaign spending, lobbying, and revolving doors between Capitol Hill, lobbying firms, think tanks, and the Pentagon that feed private interests at the expense of public good.
Governing under the Influence can be seen at work in how public officials spend our taxpayer dollars. Let’s look at U.S. military spending, for example. Since President Eisenhower coined the phrase, the “military-industrial complex” has grown to include outsourcing of government surveillance, transforming the U.S.-Mexico border into a war zone, converting police into paramilitary forces, and turning over the military’s own core functions to private contractors. Read the rest of the essay here, at AFSC. Time to Declare Independence from Corporate Rule
From the AFSC website: “Arnie Alpert is co-director of the American Friends Service Committee’s New Hampshire Program, which he has led since 1981. In that time he has been involved in movements for economic justice and affordable housing, civil and worker rights, peace and disarmament, abolition of the death penalty, and an end to racism and homophobia.”
