Money Drives It All

It has gotten tough to determine what is going on in Washington. The fact that American's no longer have a trusting source for news creates a huge trust issue between government and citizens. The issue is between government officials and citizens and also between citizens and their neighbors. The dissonance created from the media going back and forth with President Trump and his officials have left the rest of treading in the tides of change. Fortunately, I have recently been thrown a life-vest. I am reading a book, not a quick read, but informative. The title of the book is called Dark Money. I don’t know if the author is a republican or a democrat. I don’t want to know. It does not matter. The book talks about the Koch brothers and how they have “used their money” to influence politics. The book makes sense to me, and has opened my eyes to practices that have taken a great deal of patience to reap the benefits. Lets say that the book is accurate, and the Koch brothers have bought America. That would make many of the things we are reading and hearing the media about Trump make sense. It would also make sense of why Trump wants to do away with EPA, the Clean Water Act, Drill in our National Parks, and lessen regulations that allow companies to do what they will with the earth and the people on it. If I was rich, perhaps I would use my money to convince people to do what I say also. Professors Martin Gilens (Princeton University) and Benjamin I. Page (Northwestern University) looked at more than 20 years worth of data to answer a pretty simple question: Does the government represent the people?Their study took data from nearly 2000 public opinion surveys and compared it to the policies that ended up becoming law. In other words, they compared what the public wanted to what the government actually did. What they found was extremely unsettling: The opinions of the bottom 90% of income earners in America has essentially no impact at all, . (Usrepresent.us, 2017). Everyone thinks they know that money is important in American politics. But how important? The Supreme Court’s Gilded Age reasoning in McCutcheon v. FEC has inspired a flurry of commentary regarding the potential corrosive influence of campaign contributions; but that commentary largely ignores the broader question of how economic power shapes American politics and policy, (Bartels, 2014). Don forget Illuminati. In subsequent use, "Illuminati" refers to various organisations which claim or are purported to have links to the original Bavarian Illuminati or similar secret societies, though these links are unsubstantiated. They are often alleged to conspire to control world affairs, by masterminding events and planting agents in government and corporations, in order to gain political power and influence and to establish a New World Order. Central to some of the most widely known and elaborate conspiracy theories, the Illuminati have been depicted as lurking in the shadows and pulling the strings and levers of power in dozens of novels, films, television shows, comics, video games, and music videos, ( Wikipedia, 2017).

When I casted my ballot I was voting for my life and the lives of my family. I voted from my experiences. I don’t think that I have been influenced by a secret society. According to another source who also attended the conference, 300 individuals—worth at least a billion each—were present. This source said that the explicit goal was to raise $500 million to take the Senate in the 2014 midterms and another $500 million “to make sure Hillary Clinton is never president.” (Windsor, 2014). Secret society, or rich people with a voice, the author of the book Dark Money discusses how money influences elections and the ideology of a country.

References
Wikipedia. (2017). Illuminati. Retrieved from Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illuminati

Bartels, L. (2014, April 8). Rich people rule! Retrieved from The Washington Post: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2014/04/08/rich-people-rule/?utm_term=.e51915a5a5b2

Usrepresent.us. (2017). One graph shows how the rich control American politics. Retrieved from USrepresent.us: https://represent.us/action/theproblem-3/

Windsor, L. (2014, June 17). Exclusive: Inside the Koch Brothers’ Secret Billionaire Summit. Retrieved from The Nation: Exclusive: Inside the Koch Brothers’ Secret Billionaire Summit