What is going on in Congress? And most state legislatures? Why do these so-called representative bodies continue to ignore middle class and poor families and refuse to serve the most pressing needs and goals of the vast majority of Americans?
Consider lawmakers’ indifference to a child care crisis that is straining the finances, health and mental health of millions of working families, while willfully denying basic health care to low-income children in this incredibly wealthy country.
This epidemic of child abuse is the product of the creeping plutocratic ideology that now dominates capitals across America.
Most of today’s Congress is promoting corporate profiteering, including the re-legalization of child exploitation by robber barons. Child labor bills are underway in 28 states, and 12 have already passed them.
Why are the majority of the public being ignored and corporate primacy imposed over the public interest? In a word: class.
Think about it: who holds most of the seats in Congress and state legislatures? It’s not the plumbers, mechanics, taxi drivers, garbage collectors, hotel housekeepers, computer programmers, farm workers or daycare workers. It’s the bankers, lawyers, corporate executives, lobbyists, billionaires and ideological idiots.
Working class people account for half of American jobs, yet they actually run America – they hold just 1 percent of the nation’s 7,300 state legislative seats.
As the old saying goes, “If you’re not at the table, you’re on the menu,” and our political system is rigged by corporate lobbyists, lawmakers, and judges who hold public office hostage to big money, intentionally excluding the majority of the working class from their rightful place at the American policy table.
To free our democracy from corrupt corporate money, visit Public Citizen at citizen.org.
OtherWords columnist Jim Hightower is a radio commentator, author and speaker. This editorial was syndicated by OtherWords.org.
