I think unrestrained capitalism is what is destroying the United States. One way is by corporate ownership of “the press,” often referred to as the “fourth estate” for its role in the U.S. as enshrined by the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, because the capitalistic profit motive overrides reporting. We are seeing how threats made by the U.S. government toward the corporations that own “the press” results in either non-existent or bad reporting.
A Supreme Court that fulfills its responsibility for preventing tyranny would rule that threats made by the government to the press and their owners violates the First Amendment, but unfortunately our current Supreme Court sees its role as preserving/establishing the unitive executive theory as its prime directive.
Capitalism is also behind the money in PACS and lobbying resulting in Congress only representing a minority that provides its members with money. The corrosion of Congress is the ultimate problem because its law making role will ultimately need to be made to correct our current state, and those laws would work against politician’s self interests. What I think needs to happen is the classification of large financial donations, which would have to be defined, as the emoluments they are and not an act of free speech.
The Constitution has two emoluments clauses because the founders knew that quid pro quo was bad for democracy. Quid pro quo is the reason why Congress in reality only represents a minority of the United States and not the citizens as intended.
A society of no restraints, which is what we are becoming, is not a free society because vices become virtues. The greed that drives one for more and more wealth and power is seen by too many as the virtue of a successful American, but that greed expressed in our unrestrained capitalism leads to a zero sum game. Zero sum games cannot be won when democracy, freedom for all, is the prime directive. Democracy and unrestrained capitalism cannot co-exist.
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Notes From The Cave 