The Corporatization of Everything
As I’m sure you’re aware, I made some bad election predictions in my previous blog post. I was of the mindset that the United States was ready to turn a page on the MAGA movement. I figured Ohioans would vote to ban gerrymandering, something that is slowly chipping away at democracy in our state. I was wrong and that’s why I really hate making predictions. I consider myself quite politically involved and knowledgeable, but even I make mistakes! I apologize for letting my faithful readers down and am sad to share that the next four years will be a rough ride for liberalism in America.
As I reflected on why our citizens are embracing Donald Trump and right-wing extremism, I continue to come back to corporations. The rightward shift in American politics can be attributed in part to Citizens United, a 2010 Supreme Court decision that further tilted political influence toward wealthy donors and corporations. This is the Supreme Court case that essentially says corporations are people and can spend unlimited amounts of money on elections. The number one driving factor behind all corporations are profits and that is what the 2024 election cycle was all about. Corporations backed Trump because he’s the candidate that will allow them to make the most amount of money. Right here in Cincinnati, the Lindner family donated $2.7 million to Trump’s campaign! John Barret, CEO of Western and Southern, has also hosted lavish fundraisers for Republicans and Donald Trump.
With corporations being the main driving force behind political donations, it’s no wonder we are seeing an attack on things like labor unions. I suspect the next four years will be a very challenging time for labor unions, particularly unions that often reject right-wing politics. Teacher unions have been under assault here in Ohio since 2010 and I suspect it’s only going to continue to get worse. We are seeing the corporatization of education, with companies like Pearson profiting massive amounts of money from the American taxpayer. Pearson is a standardized testing company that shoves corporatized curriculums and assessments down the throats of public schools. Other educational issues include diverting public funds away from public education and sending it to private schools through the voucher system. Corporations do not particularly like public transparency or accountability, so things like vouchers and gerrymandering will continue to rule the day here in Ohio for the time being. I just hope public school districts will be able to weather the storm.
Call me crazy, but I reject the notion that corporations and billions will save the working class. That leads us to our current iteration of the Democratic party. As I mentioned previously, the Democratic party is also accepting large donations from corporations and their CEOs. Because these corporate rich guys know the game is rigged in their favor, we also find that these same wealthy Republicans donate heavily to local Democratic candidates! These guys are only doing this because Republicans will soon become extinct at the local level in Cincinnati and Hamilton County. These corporate elites do this in order to buy favor with low-level elected officials to land sweetheart tax breaks or even government subsidies. The wealthy have enough money to hedge their bets and they do it right here in Cincinnati. And we must not forget about Kroger, a company that has been fighting with the Biden administration because they want to monopolize the grocery sector. Trump will undoubtedly approve the Albertsons/Kroger merger and less competition will ultimately lead to increased prices for all of us.
All levels of the Democratic party have ultimately shifted away from appealing to working-class voters and are at the beck and call of the wealthy elite. Even on the local level, we see corporate lobbyists working within the Democratic party, something that many don’t seem to have an issue with. This is a blatant conflict of interest that a corporate lobbyist would have direct influence over the endorsement of Democrats in Hamilton County, but I doubt it changes any time soon. Ultimately, the Democratic party at all levels is in rough shape and that’s because they’ve stopped listening to labor unions and working-class people. It’s a party that wants to present the most corporatized and milquetoast platform we’ve ever seen and they expect us to like it, transparency and fairness be damned. Locally, it has turned into machine politics where people control their own fiefdoms.
The path forward to success on a statewide and national level will need to be multifaceted. Who in the Democratic Party leadership decided it was a smart idea to completely abandon rural voters? You can’t strictly depend on urban areas to win you elections and the suburbs aren’t as friendly as Democrats once thought. The party will need to embrace the primary process and trust their members while also putting an end to the back room deals. We often see people hand selected by party leadership to run for political offices and this is just nepotism, plain and simple. Primaries exist for a reason, let’s utilize them! Handing out party endorsing before primaries is something that may need to be looked at strictly for the sake of full transparency. I’ve always been a believer that sunshine and transparency are the cure for all things that ail political parties and government entities. We will need much of that moving forward. A corporatized Democratic Party at any level should be entirely rejected in order to bring back marginalized voters who left the party. These are the voters who Bernie Sanders appealed to, but the Democratic Party clearly rejected in 2016 and again in 2020. There needs to be some serious long-term planning within the party happening because they’ve been out maneuvered by Republicans since 2010. I’m fed up with losing and I’m fed up with the piss poor strategy coming out of the Democratic Party at all levels.