“Right now, we are moving toward an oligarchic type of society where big money not only controls the economy—they’re going to have a very, very heavy say in who gets elected,” argues the independent senator from Vermont.

Friday, June 8, 2012 by The Nation

Bernie Sanders Sees Threatening 'Aggressiveness Among the Ruling Class'

by John Nichols

 

Governor Scott Walker says that, with his victory in Tuesday’s recall election, he will “tell Wisconsin, tell our country, and we tell people all across the globe that voters really do want leaders who stand up and make the tough decisions…”

 

“There is,” says Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), “an aggressiveness out there among the ruling class of this country, among the billionaires who are saying: ‘You know what? Ya, we got a whole lot now, but we want even more. And we don’t give a damn about the middle class. We don't care about working families. We want it all. And now we can buy it.’ ”

Actually, cutting taxes for CEOs and corporations and then balancing budgets on the backs of teachers, nurses and snowplow drivers isn’t exactly tough work. Redistribution of the wealth upward is common practice these days.

That said: Walker’s right about the fact that his victory speaks to the state, the nation and the world.

But what does it say?

US Senator Bernie Sanders has a wiser assessment than Walker, who raised and spent the better part of $35 million to defend himself—and had another $15 million spent in his favor by so-called “independent” groups. The whole process, say Sanders, is “hugely scary stuff.”

“There is,” the senator says, “an aggressiveness out there among the ruling class of this country, among the billionaires who are saying: ‘You know what? Ya, we got a whole lot now, but we want even more. And we don’t give a damn about the middle class. We don't care about working families. We want it all. And now we can buy it.’ ”

Referring to Wisconsin as a “testing ground” for the no-limits campaign spending that has been ushered in by the US Supreme Court’s Citizens United ruling, Sanders said, “I have a deep concern that what we saw in Wisconsin can happen in any state throughout this country and in the presidential election.”

“I think that people do not fully understand the disaster that Citizens United was,” Sanders said of the 5–4 US Supreme Court decision in radio conversation with Ed Schultz. “What that did is open the floodgates so that billionaires like the Koch brothers and others are now prepared to spend unbelievable sums of money to elect extreme right-wing candidates.”

“Right now, we are moving toward an oligarchic type of society where big money not only controls the economy—they’re going to have a very, very heavy say in who gets elected.” --Sen. Sanders

Sanders is a leading supporter of amending the Constitution in order to assure that all Americans—not just billionaires and corporations—have a voice in American politics.

“Right now, we are moving toward an oligarchic type of society where big money not only controls the economy—they’re going to have a very, very heavy say in who gets elected,” argues the independent senator from Vermont.

What Sanders describes is scary.

But, as he well notes, “grassroots Wisconsin” mustered 47 percent of the vote in opposition to the money power. And they gave the Democrats control of the state Senate, creating the first formal legislative check on Walker’s governorship since his election.

“This is not the time to [throw your hands up in despair]. This is not the time to do that,” he adds. “This is the time to organize for the taking on all of this money.”

As usual, the gentleman from Vermont is right.

There is no point in getting scared.

It is time to get organized to address that which scares us: an assault on nothing less than the basic underpinnings of democracy.

© 2012 The Nation

John Nichols is Washington correspondent for The Nation and associate editor of The Capital Times in Madison, Wisconsin. His most recent book is The “S” Word: A Short History of an American Tradition. A co-founder of the media reform organization Free Press, Nichols is co-author with Robert W. McChesney of The Death and Life of American Journalism: The Media Revolution that Will Begin the World Again and Tragedy & Farce: How the American Media Sell Wars, Spin Elections, and Destroy Democracy. Nichols' other books include: Dick: The Man Who is President and The Genius of Impeachment: The Founders' Cure for Royalism.