One thing Barry Lynn points out in reviewing “Cornered: The New Monopoly Capitalism and the Economics of Destruction” is how all of the economic issues we face are connected to concentrated corporate power. This is the root cause of the dysfunction of government as money dominates elections and, just as creativity is shut out of business, new ideas are shut out of the political dialogue and real change to policies that would fix urgent problems are not considered. This dysfunction makes it impossible for government to be responsive to the urgent necessities of the people and nation.
We’ve become an oligarchy where the economic elite join with the government to ensure that wealth continues to funnel to the top. This rule of the wealthy few through government they control leaves most Americans struggling, bankruptcies and foreclosures rising, the middle class shrinking, poverty at record levels and the seeds of change being fertilized.
It takes organized citizens to make change. It was not Wilson who gave women the right to vote, but women demanding it; it was not LBJ and the Dixiecrats who dominated his party that gave us the Civil Rights Act, it was African Americans demanding it; and it was not Nixon who ended the Vietnam War, it was the American people (and the Vietnamese people) demanding it.
This is the way it has always been and it is our job as people who see the tremendous unfairness of the current economy to demand.
