In this excellent debate on AlJazeera a lot can be learned. Of course it is not surprising that Wall St has a huge influence on the election process, especially since the advent of the SuperPACs. What may be however more surprising is that Barack Obama received most of his campaign funding in 2008 from the investment bank Goldman Sachs. Furthermore, compared with previous presidents he had by far the highest yearly income.
It’s not that the financial industry is mainly funding only a single political party, per contra they fund both at the same time. What happens? Independent in what way the US electorate decides they have bought influence into the legislative system. Moreover, they can already frame the argument about issues they are interested in, meaning its not even publicly discussed what really matters and therefore would be harmful for the profits of the financial industry. So we may still believe that money trickles down
It seems to be the sad truth that the US is the best democracy money can buy. Or wait, shouldn’t it be called oligarchy?
