The Presidency on Sale: Small Contributors Waste Their Money

A Black Agenda Radio commentary by Glen Ford

"The little guys' cash is
dwarfed by the contributions from the big guys."

The world of high finance may be traumatized and
dysfunctional, but there's still a bull market in the buying and selling of the
U.S. presidency. Both big business parties - the Republicans and Democrats -
and their respective White House campaigns, seem untouched by the financial
crisis; they're pulling in contributions hand over fist. Six hundred thousand
Republicans who never contributed before found ways to funnel cash to their
party, as did millions of new donors who call themselves Democrats. What's so
dramatically different this election season is that big business, which always
casts the decisive vote in American politics, is leaning Democratic. The rich
vote with their bank accounts, and they do so early and often. By a significant
margin, Barack Obama is their choice - a new face for the same old system. The
more poorly the system performs, the more badly a new face is needed.

According to the Wall Street Journal, a recent Obama fat-cat
fundraiser in Miami was expected to bring in three and a half million dollars,
but wound up grossing more than five million.

The moneyed classes finance the bulk of the presidential
campaigns - 60 percent, in Barack Obama's case, an even higher proportion for
John McCain. So, when small donors - people with $200 or less to spare - put
their meager funds at the disposal of the two big business parties, the little
guys' pile of cash is dwarfed by the contributions from the big guys. Guess who
really calls the shots. In effect, small donors to the Democratic and
Republican parties are simply reinforcing decisions already made by the corporate
world.

"Small Donors who gave to
big parties wasted their contributions."

When small donors from the progressive side of the political
spectrum - and that's where most Black voters reside - send their money to the
big business parties, they actually weaken their own positions. If it is true
that money talks, then small donors are shouted down by the fat cats. You can't
beat them at the money game, where the voice of big business is all that is
heard. We have just seen the result: both major parties and their presidential
candidates rushed to support a pure bailout for Wall Street - a plan conceived
by investment bankers primarily to benefit investment bankers, but opposed by
popular majorities. Cynthia McKinney and Ralph Nader put forward alternative plans
to deal with the crisis as it affects the majority of people. But most folks
never heard those alternatives, because the big guys totally dominate the
discussion through their media and their money. Small Donors who gave to big
parties wasted their contributions.

If a fraction of the small donations by Black and white
progressives had gone to "Cynthia Who?" McKinney or Ralph "Is He Still Alive?"
Nader, we would now be in the midst of a real debate over which way to go in
the current crisis. But instead, rich men's schemes trump everyone else's
dreams. Small donors to the big parties helped that happen.

For Black Agenda Radio, I'm Glen Ford.

Broadcasters who want downloadable MP3 copies of this and other Black Agenda Radio commentaries can find them on our archive page.

BAR executive editor Glen Ford can be contacted
at [email protected].

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