Re: Tomgram: Thomas Frank, Worshipping Money in D.C.

Corruption by any other name is still corruption.

Carl Jarvis


On 6/30/16, TomDispatch <tomdispatch@nationinstitute.org> wrote:
> http://www.tomdispatch.com
>
> June 30, 2016
> Tomgram: Thomas Frank, Worshipping Money in D.C.
> (http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/176159/tomgram%3A_thomas_frank%2C_worshipping_money_in_d.c./)
>
> [Note for TomDispatch Readers: Read today's piece and then get your hands on
> Thomas Frank's new book, Listen, Liberal: Or, What Ever Happened to the
> Party of the People?
> (http://www.amazon.com/dp/1627795391/ref=nosim/?tag=tomdispatch-20) It's the
> political must-read of this season if you want to know where liberalism went
> in the last two and a half decades. The next TomDispatch post will be on
> Tuesday, July 5th. Tom]
>
> I'm no stranger to shakedowns. I've experienced them, in one form or
> another, from Asia to Africa.
>
> Sometimes the corruption is subtle. Sometimes it's naked. Sometimes you
> press folded currency into someone's palm. Sometimes there's a more official
> procedure. Sometimes a payment is demanded outright. (A weapon might even be
> involved.) Other times, it's up to you to suggest that we somehow work
> things out privately.
>
> Luckily, I live in the United States, and if the 2016 presidential campaign
> has reminded me of anything, it's that America is, by definition (and unlike
> so many of the other countries on the planet), a corruption-free zone. Mind
> you, no one would claim that the race for the Oval Office is free of
> unethical behavior. It's just that the actions and efforts involved aren't
> considered "corrupt" here.
>
> Take an Associated Press (AP) exposé last week. It revealed
> (http://bigstory.ap.org/article/9f7412236962464f9f2c0a8d2696ba25/trumps-campaign-cycles-6-million-trump-companies)
> that the campaign of presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump had "plowed
> about $6 million" -- roughly 10% of his expenditures -- "back into Trump
> corporate products and services." The campaign paid, for instance, about
> $520,000 in rent and utilities for its headquarters at Manhattan's Trump
> Tower and an astounding $4.6 million to TAG Air, the holding company for the
> billionaire candidate's airplanes.
>
> The AP investigation found that the Trump campaign was "unafraid to
> co-mingle political and business endeavors in an unprecedented way," while
> noting that there is, in fact, "nothing illegal about it." In other words,
> while it may seem shady, feel fraudulent, and -- to steal a Trumpism --
> sound crooked, it's all on the up and up according to our unique American
> system.
>
> Today, Thomas Frank, author most recently of Listen, Liberal: Or, What Ever
> Happened to the Party of the People?
> (http://www.amazon.com/dp/1627795391/ref=nosim/?tag=tomdispatch-20) , takes
> us on a tour of another dimly lit corner of corruption-free America, a
> completely legal and remarkably unethical world that comes with its own
> guidebook: a newsletter chronicling daily dalliances involving money,
> alcohol, and political influence. Though it may seem like a foreign world to
> those of us outside the Beltway bubble, it influences our daily lives in
> myriad ways. Think of it as a circuit of cocktail hours and cocktail
> parties linked by a well-greased set of revolving doors; an endless series
> of social events attended by the influential, the influencers, and those
> looking -- for the right price -- to be influenced. If it seems like I'm
> using that word -- influence -- a little too much, it isn't by chance. Let
> the influential Thomas Frank explain how influence and Influence have
> warped Washington and the rest of our world. Nick Turse
>
> The Life of the Parties
> The Influence of Influence in Washington
> By Thomas Frank (http://www.tomdispatch.com/authors/thomasfrank)
>
> Although it's difficult to remember those days eight years ago when
> Democrats seemed to represent something idealistic and hopeful and brave,
> let's take a moment and try to recall the stand Barack Obama once took
> against lobbyists. Those were the days when the nation was learning that
> George W. Bush's Washington was, essentially, just a big playground for
> those lobbyists and that every government operation had been opened to the
> power of money. Righteous disgust filled the air. "Special interests" were
> much denounced. And a certain inspiring senator from Illinois promised
> (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/22/AR2007062201019.html)
> that, should he be elected president, his administration would contain no
> lobbyists at all. The revolving door between government and K Street, he
> assured us, would turn no more.
>
> Instead, the nation got a lesson in all the other ways that "special
> interests" can get what they want -- like simple class solidarity
> (http://listenliberal.com) between the Ivy Leaguers who advise the president
> and the Ivy Leaguers who sell derivative securities to unsuspecting
> foreigners. As that inspiring young president filled his administration with
> Wall Street personnel, we learned that the revolving door still works, even
> if the people passing through it aren't registered lobbyists.
>
> But whatever became of lobbying itself, which once seemed to exemplify
> everything wrong with Washington, D.C.? Perhaps it won't surprise you to
> learn that lobbying remains one of the nation's persistently prosperous
> industries, and that, since 2011, it has been the focus of Influence, one of
> the daily email newsletters published by Politico, that great chronicler of
> the Obama years. Influence was to be, as its very first edition declared
> (http://www.politico.com/tipsheets/politico-influence/2011/04/welcome-to-politico-influence-why-lobbyists-arent-worried-about-revenue-slump-rich-gold-jonathan-jones-weigh-in-on-the-future-jamie-brown-hantman-launches-own-firm-008930)
> , "the must-read crib sheet for Washington's influence class," with news of
> developments on K Street done up in tones of sycophantic smugness. For my
> money, it is one of the quintessential journalistic artifacts of our time:
> the constantly unfolding tale of power-for-hire, told always with a discreet
> sympathy
> for the man on top.
>
> Click here to read more of this dispatch.
> (http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/176159/tomgram%3A_thomas_frank%2C_worshipping_money_in_d.c./#more)
>
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