Concentrated Private Power and Other Factors Contributing to the Emergence of the New Fascism | kjl
The broken US political system, which, after the Supreme Court in 1976 decided that limits on campaign expenditures are unconstitutional ( Buckley v. Valeo ) and then again after its decision allowing for unrestricted corporate contributions to political campaigns ( Citizens United, 2010), is now thoroughly infused with the virtually unlimited resources of concentrated private power. More specifically, the political system is effectively under the control of the authoritarian sector of private power, though the potential for reducing the damage of dictatorial rule, for dismantling elite rule in all its forms, and for vastly improving local, regional, and global social relations is inherent and just below the surface in human nature. Though often suppressed, that tendency—the will for freedom and mutualism—is apparent in the trajectory of the expansion of human sovereignty through history. Progress has been primarily determined by the outcome of popular struggles seeking human rights a...