John Simkin Posted January 9, 2006 Share Posted January 9, 2006 It is becoming clear that US political lobbyists might have been involved in a large number of illegal covert activities carried out by CIA operatives and their foreign assets. For example, Tommy Corcoran (the overthrow of Jacobo Arbenz in Guatemala), Irving Davidson (the assassination of JFK) and Michael Deaver (death squads in El Salvador and Argentina). Members might be interested in Gary Younge's account of how political lobbyists are undermining democracy in the USA. http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.php?showtopic=5801 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Stapleton Posted January 9, 2006 Share Posted January 9, 2006 It is becoming clear that US political lobbyists might have been involved in a large number of illegal covert activities carried out by CIA operatives and their foreign assets. For example, Tommy Corcoran (the overthrow of Jacobo Arbenz in Guatemala), Irving Davidson (the assassination of JFK) and Michael Deaver (death squads in El Salvador and Argentina). Members might be interested in Gary Younge's account of how political lobbyists are undermining democracy in the USA. http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.php?showtopic=5801 At the risk of sounding like a broken record, democracy can't function effectively when special interests are allowed to bribe politicians and corrupt the system. As Gary's excellent post implies, the Government becomes a vehicle for the implementation of policies which benefit those with the most money, to the detriment of the vast majority. The pharmaceutical lobby, with two lobbyists for every congressman, is a great example. The lobby ensures that cheap, generic alternatives to the most popular therapeutic drugs don't become available to the general public and massive profits to the industry and its' shareholders are the result. Cheaper alternatives, manufactured in Mexico, are even advertised on this Forum. Add to this the fact that the US is the only western country without some form of universal health care and you have a health system for the rich only. I don't know why there aren't riots in the streets. The corruption of the democratic system exists in other countries as well, but its most rampant manifestation is in the US. Banning political donations seems like the only solution which might prevent the system from collapsing but, of course, this is replete with practical difficulties. It's a well that's so deep. As China and India gradually squeeze America and other western countries into lowering the living standards of their citizens in order to compete, those citizens might just realise that the last two decades have seen massive wealth tranfers to a tiny proportion of the population and the political systems which they so cherish have done nothing to prevent it. By the people, for the people etc. is just a bunch of crap. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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