Author Archives: Author: Bruce Berlin

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About Author: Bruce Berlin

Bruce Berlin is a retired, public sector ethics attorney. He is the author of Breaking Big Money’s Grip on America (See breakingbigmoneysgrip.com.), the founder of New Mexicans for Money Out of Politics, a former U.S. Institute of Peace fellow, the founder and former executive director of The Trinity Forum for International Security and Conflict Resolution, and a practitioner of Buddhist meditation. He can be reached at breakingbigmoneysgrip@gmail.com.

Breaking Big Money’s Grip on America

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            Today America faces many critical problems. Gun violence, climate change, immigration reform, income inequality and terrorism are just a few of the most pressing concerns.

            One issue, however, overrides all the others. That is, the power of Big Money to unduly influence the outcome of our elections and the formation of public policy. Eighty-four percent of Americans believe money has too much influence in political campaigns, according to a June 2015 New York Times/CBS News poll. In addition, a July 2014 bipartisan study found that 74% of all voters agreed that it is necessary to fix our broken political system before anything can be done to solve other important national issues.1

            Why do we need to get Big Money out of politics first? Because regardless of the issue, Big Money’s grip on our politicians is so strong that they invariably bow to Big Money’s legislative desires at the people’s expense, in order to obtain very large campaign contributions, which help keep them in power.

            For example, despite the fact that 92% of Americans support universal background checks for all gun purchases,2 Big Money has been able to buy off our federal representatives and prevent passage of a universal background check statute that would help protect millions of innocent Americans from gun violence. Since the 2000 election cycle, the gun lobby (i.e. the National Rifle Association (NRA), the firearms industry, and the Gun Owners of America) has contributed a combined $81 million to congressional and presidential election campaigns to defeat gun control measures, according to federal disclosures and a study done for the Center for Public Integrity.3 The fact that more than 30,000 people are killed by guns in our country every year, some of which could likely be prevented by universal background checks, seems to matter little to our representatives who receive big campaign contributions from the gun lobby.

            By the same token, our congressional representatives appear more interested in the huge campaign contributions they receive from Wall Street than they are in protecting Americans against fraudulent banking practices. As difficult to believe as this may be, Congressional Republicans and Democrats alike voted to pass a section of the 2015 omnibus budget bill that eliminated a taxpayer protection provision from the Dodd-Frank Act of 2010. In so doing, our representatives gave Wall Street speculators the green light to once more gamble irresponsibly knowing that Congress had restored taxpayer-backed funds for their reckless ventures, just like the ones that had caused the 2008 Great Recession. This same Congressional support for special interests that ignores or rejects the public good exists in almost all areas of government policy.

            While Big Money’s influence is quite formidable, there is, however, a time-tested solution to this problem. As noted in Breaking Big Money’s Grip on America, “when vested interests have constructed seemingly insurmountable barriers to the people’s demands for a more equitable society, Americans have come together and overcome the obstacles…(by forming) mass movements.” Like the Labor, Civil Rights, and Gay and Lesbian Rights movements, among others, now we must build a broad-based, grassroots movement, call it “the Democracy Movement,” to remove the corrupting influence of money in politics and make the government work for all the people.

            Moreover, the effort to build such a movement has already begun. Organizations like Common Cause, the Democracy Initiative, Issue One, Take Back Our Republic and People for the American Way are focusing on campaign finance reform to eliminate Big Money’s corrupting effect and establish political equity so that all Americans have a meaningful voice in our government. Please join them. They need your help.

            Skeptics will say it cannot be done. Big Money is just too powerful. But against great odds, popular, grassroots movements won women the right to vote, labor the eight-hour workday and the 40-hour work week, gays and lesbians the right to marriage, and all Americans a strong voice in ending the Vietnam War.

            Yes, we will need to come together and give it our all. And, it may take a long time. But, what is the alternative? Are we willing to let our great experiment in democracy die? Are we going to leave our children and grandchildren a country controlled by a corrupt political system that has no allegiance to government by and for the people, and no concern for the common good or average Americans?

            As noted in Breaking Big Money’s Grip on America, over the course of our history “millions of Americans have sacrificed their lives valiantly fighting for freedom and justice. While today the forces opposing our democratic way of life are neither foreign nor military, they are as strong and dangerous as America has ever faced in the past.” Now it is up to us. We must halt the push toward plutocracy and build the movement to revive democracy in America.

1 See Parick Caddell et al, “Americans Consensus: Fix the Corrupt System,” Popular Resistance Org. July 5, 2014.

2 See “Release Detail,” Quinnipiac University, July 3, 2014.

3 Alan Berlow, et al., “Gun Lobby’s Money and Power Still Holds Sway over Congress,” Center for Public Integrity, May 1, 2013.

Will Hillary Put the Country First?

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There has been a lot of news recently about the FBI’s investigation into Hillary Clinton’s emails and whether she violated the law by using an unsecured email server for official business at her home while she was Secretary of State.

Hopefully, this question will be resolved soon and not become a big issue in the election. But time is running short. The Democratic convention is less than four months away. Of course, if Sen. Sanders wins the nomination, Clinton’s legal problems won’t matter in the election. However, at this point Clinton is still favored to win the nomination.

For the sake of the country, I think Clinton should do everything she can to have this matter resolved before the convention. Obviously, she is not in control of the investigation. Nevertheless, she could request that it be expedited. Clinton should ask that she and other witnesses be interviewed under oath this month and that a decision about whether to bring charges be made by the end of May.

President Obama should also do whatever he can to get the FBI to conclude its investigation in the next couple of months. The Democratic Party, let alone the country, cannot afford to have this cloud lingering over the fall election campaign.

 

 

Democratic Party Not Worthy of its Name

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The Democratic Party is a disgrace and not worthy of its name. It is not democratic and has used its great influence to assist Hillary Clinton’s campaign and produce a very biased primary election process. The Party needs to be rebuilt by honest Americans, or we should create a new progressive party in 2017. See http://observer.com/2016/03/the-countless-failings-of-the-dnc/.

Build a Mass Movement to Overcome Big Money & Revive Democracy

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America is faced with many problems today: Gun violence, climate change, immigration reform, income inequality and terrorism, just to name a few.

However, one issue overrides all the others. That is, the power of Big Money to unduly influence the outcome of our elections and the formation of public policy. Seventy-five percent of all voters agree that it is necessary to get Big Money out of politics and fix our broken political system before anything can be done to solve these other important national issues.

For example, despite the fact that 92% of Americans support universal background checks for all gun purchases, Big Money has bought off Congress and prevented passage of a universal background check statute that would help protect millions of innocent Americans from gun violence.

However, there is a time-tested solution to this problem. As noted in Breaking Big Money’s Grip on America, “when vested interests have constructed seemingly insurmountable barriers to the people’s demands for a more equitable society, Americans have come together and overcome the obstacles…(by forming) mass movements.”

Like the Labor, Civil Rights, and Gay and Lesbian Rights movements, among others, now we must build a broad-based, grassroots Democracy Movement to remove the corrupting influence of money in politics and make the government work for all the people. Visit www.breakingbigmoneysgrip.com for how you can start working to revive democracy in America.

 

Reading at Books Inc, San Francisco, Thurday, March 10

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Meet author Bruce Berlin at a reading & discussion about his new book, Breaking Big Money’s Grip on America. Thursday, March 10 at 7 pm. Books Inc. 2256 Chestnut St, San Francisco. Call 415-931-3633 for more inforation.

Public Events with Bruce Berlin, Author of Breaking Big Money’s Grip on America

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I’m in California now. I will be giving two public talks and book signings this coming week. On Tuesday, March 8 at 6:30 pm, I will be at the Noe Valley Library, 451 Jersey Street, San Francisco. This event is sponsored by N. California Common Cause. Call 415-531-1744 or email hgriego@commoncause.org for more information and to pre-order Breaking Big Money’s Grip on America.

On March 10 at 7 pm, I will be discussing Breaking Big Money’s Grip on America and signing books at Books Inc., 2256 Chestnut Street in the Marina District of San Francisco. Call 415-931-3633 for more information.

Clearly this is a critical time for our country. While my presentations will examine how Big Money has corrupted our political system, they will focus on how we Americans can work together to build a nonpartisan, grassroots democracy movement. If you are in the Bay area, I hope you will come and join in the discussion to revive our democracy.

The Bottom Line in the Democratic Primary Race

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The bottom line in the Democratic primary race is: Do the American people want to continue to have a government run by the Establishment. Or, is it time we actually had a government of, by and for the people? That is really what Democratic primary voters will decide in the next few months. Who controls our government and who should be calling the shots?

Yes, there are real differences between Clinton and Sanders on policy issues. But, the big question is whether the Democratic Party will continue to be dominated by Big Money and centrist Establishment thinking, or will the rank and file members who know the system is rigged against them stand up and demand fundamental changes that will level the playing field and give regular people real political power.

In the recent New Hampshire Democratic debate Hillary Clinton claimed that big donors have never influenced her votes. While that may be true, big donors clearly have a lot more access to lobby her to adopt their positions on specific issues than average voters do. There’s no question that money buys access. You can bet that Goldman Sachs did not pay Clinton over $200,000 per speech just to hear her talk about her experience as Secretary of State. So, it’s not hard to imagine how Wall Street’s access to Clinton impacts her decisions; for instance, that a new Glass Steagall Act to rein in the big banks is not needed.

If the American people continue to allow this kind of high donor influence to control our government, then we will be complicit in the establishment of a government of, by and for Big Money and corporate America that will never meet the real needs and desires of the American people. Bernie Sanders is offering us the opportunity to end our corrupt campaign finance system and make our country a more equitable society. Call it revolution or call it democratic socialism. Whatever you call it, we’ll all be a lot better off if we actively work with him to revive our democracy.

 

Where has the incrementalism that Establishment Democrats support gotten most Americans?

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Before I try to answer this question, I apologize for my absence from this blog for the last few weeks. My father was in the hospital which required that my attention be directed first and foremost toward him. Now that he is back home and improving, I can deal with other issues like the one in the title of this piece.

The short answer to the question in the title is that the Democratic establishment’s support of incremental change has maintained the status quo and done very little for most Americans over the last 30 or more years. According to Slate.com, income for the top 20 percent of Americans has increased since the 1970s while income for the bottom 80 percent declined. In the 1970s the top 1 percent received 8 percent of total income while by 2007 they were receiving 18 percent. Now it’s an even greater amount. During the same period income for the bottom 20 percent had decreased 30 percent.

As I point out in my book, Breaking Big Money’s Grip on America, “between 2009 and 2012 the incomes of top 1 percent of citizens climbed 31.4 percent — or 95 percent of the total gain –while incomes of the other 99 percent grew only .4 percent.”

Since members of the Democratic establishment, for the most part, are in the top 20 percent which have seen their incomes increase over these last 30 years, they don’t feel an urgency for bold initiatives like Sen. Sanders proposes to reorder a system that has served them well. Like Secretary Clinton, they are fine with incrementalism. While many of them recognize various degrees of unfairness in the status quo, they don’t want to rock the boat too much for fear it might spring a leak or even capsize, causing significant harm to their relatively safe positions.

As Brent Budowsky writes for The Hill, it is Sanders’ growing popularity that seems to have ignited the establishment’s backlash against him: “Virtually the entire Washington and Wall Street establishments are now in a state of panic about the possibility of a [Sanders] victory in the Iowa Democratic caucus next Monday,” Budowsky writes. “What the insider Washington Democratic establishment fails to understand is that the issues Sanders raises have great appeal to the broad nation.” Moreover, the establishment’s pushback exposes their lack of conviction for a truly fair and just society.

The great majority of Americans who represent “the broad nation” and are on the lower decks of our economic ship feel they are in danger of drowning as their financial boat takes on more water. Incrementalism will not save them or their children. Sen. Sanders’s calls for strong measures to redirect America’s economic and social policies gives them hope that they can yet land on solid ground.

 

 

 

 

A Big Boost for Sanders and a Huge Blow to Clinton

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In case you missed it, a few days ago 170 of America’s leading economists endorsed Sen. Sanders’ plan to reform Wall Street. Here’s some of what they said:

In our view, Sanders’ plan for comprehensive financial reform is critical for avoiding another ‘too-big-to-fail’ financial crisis. The Senator is correct that the biggest banks must be broken up and that a new 21st Century Glass-Steagall Act, separating investment from commercial banking, must be enacted….The only way to contain Wall Street’s excesses is with reforms sufficiently bold and public they can’t be watered down. That’s why we support Senator Sanders’s plans for busting up the biggest banks and resurrecting a modernized version of Glass-Steagall.

In addition, these leading economists noted: Secretary Hillary Clinton’s more modest proposals do not go far enough. They call for a bit more oversight and a few new charges on shadow banking activity, but they leave intact the titanic financial conglomerates that practice most shadow banking. As a result, her plan does not adequately reduce the serious risks our financial system poses to the American economy and to individual Americans. Given the size and political power of Wall Street, her proposals would only invite more dilution and finagle. (See http://www.politicususa.com/2016/01/14/170-economists-bernie-sanders-plan-reform-wall-st-rein-greed.html)

These economists couldn’t be more clear. If Americans do not want to risk another financial crisis like the 2008 meltdown, the candidate that will provide the best protection against such a calamity is Sen. Sanders. And the reason is quite obvious. Unlike Secretary Clinton, Sen. Sanders is not tied to Wall Street. Many of Hillary Clinton’s biggest donors are investment bankers. She cannot both satisfy their interests and safeguard the American people at the same time. When a future President Clinton is dealing with critical financial issues facing our nation, can we trust her to make decisions that are in the public’s best interests over those that favor the Big Money that helped her get elected, and she will need for her re-election?

We all know the answer to that question. Hillary Clinton is part of the Establishment that uses its money and influence to get what it wants from Washington at the expense of the American people. Her Wall Street reform proposals don’t go far enough because she cannot afford to bite the hand that feeds her. But, we, the people, cannot afford more establishment politics that serve Big Money and provide little benefit for the rest of us. We need the strong leadership that Sen. Sanders offers on this and many other issues. And, we will only get that leadership if we all go out and work to ensure his election.

For more on the problem of Big Money in politics, visit http://www.breakingbigmoneysgrip.com and read Breaking Big Money’s Grip on America.