The Takeover of the Democratic Party

Thousands of journalists covered the Democratic National Convention here. Almost all of them missed the biggest story. The story wasn't missed because it happened in the shadows of in some smoke-filled back room. It was bypassed because of ideological binders worn by so many in the conformist press. The big story was the takeover of the Democratic Party by big business. Of course, the Democratic Party has always included hefty doses of corporate interests. But in past years, they were one of many competing forces in the party, along with representatives of labor, minorities, senior citizens, women and others. The significance of this convention is that corporate America has taken undisputed control - at least for now - of both major political parties, not just the GOP. How did so many in the political press corps miss the story? Most establishment journalists seem blind to the fact that corporations are thoroughly political institutions, seeking ever-increasing influence over parties, legislation and government regulation. (These businesses are, after all, the folks who underwrite the news with their advertising.) In political reporting, corporations are treated as benign, neutral, invisible. Their political maneuvers are generally not news.

It's not that journalists are oblivious to political wheeling and dealing by various groups. In the days before the convention, political reporters scrutinized teachers unions, black activists, senior-citizen groups, feminists, gay-rights advocates - denigrating them as ``special interests'' who could ruin ``Clinton's convention'' by ``alienating middle-class voters.'' With so much media focus on these relatively powerless grass-roots groups, powerful corporations - the country's REAL special interests - ran off with the party.

ITEM: Two days before the convention, a ``Victory Train'' carried congressional Democrats from Washington to New York. Accompanying the party elite on the train ride were corporate lobbyists who paid $10,000 to $25,000 for the right to mingle and shmooze. The Democratic National Committee has been raking in money from virtually every corporate interest needing a government favor. The message to anti-poverty or consumer-rights activists: No need for you to come on board. You can wait at the station.

ITEM: The Clinton-Gore ticket represents the seizure of the party hierarchy by the Democratic Leadership Council, which is typically euphemized in the media as a group of ``moderate'' Democratic politicians who want the party to ``speak for the middle class.'' (Clinton and Gore were founders of the DLC; Clinton was its chair in 1990-91.) The problem is that the DLC has no middle-class constituents. It is bankrolled by - and speaks for - corporate America: ARCO, Dow Chemical, Georgia Pacific, Martin Marietta, the Tobacco Institute, the Petroleum Institute, etc.

ITEM: Clinton became the media-designated ``front-runner'' in large part because he raised so much money early in the campaign. The cash didn't come from middle-class folks. As reported by the weekly In These Times, most of it came from conservative business interests; investment bankers, corporate lobbyists and Wall Street firms which fund both major political parties.

ITEM: Two of Clinton's key fund-raisers were Robert Barry, a longtime General Electric lobbyist, and Thomas H. Boggs Jr., who ears $1.5 million a year as a lawyer-lobbyist for the Washington firm of Patton, Boggs, and Blow. Boggs' parents were members of Congress; his sister is media pundit Cokie Roberts. His law firm boasts a computer program that matches corporate donors with Congress members who seek his help in raising money; a match depends on what legislation is pending before Congress.

ITEM: The Boggs law firm also boasts partner Ron Brown, chair of the Democratic Party. Some pundits have suggested that since Brown in an African-American, the Clinton-Gore ticket has less need of Jesse Jackson to mobilize the black vote in November. But Ron Brown is far more familiar with corporate boardrooms and government corridors than grass-roots organizing. His clients have included an array of U.S. and foreign business interests, as well as the regime of Haitian dictator Jean Claude Duvalier.

When Jerry Brown spent his campaign denouncing ``Washington sleaze,'' he was referring to these kinds of cozy corporate-government relations. But mainstream media have demonstrated far less animus toward corporate influence than toward Jerry Brown, who was routinely described by journalists covering the convention as ``disruptive,'' ``egotistical'' and a ``party pooper.'' Aided by this media slant, corporate insiders are laughing all the way to the bank.

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This is the real problem with our "democracy" - the voters have very little influence over the choices. Those decisions have already been made for us. We should feel glad about it, now we don't have to make the difficult decisions...