Revolution 101

Let's face it: The Bush administration has not made for a successful presidency. Bush is an idiot, Cheney a greedy bully. The rest of the fifteen stooges are fairly bad people as well. We could easily squander hours discussing exactly how bad these people are. Such a debate, however, would do little to address a question we desperately need to answer: How did these people get here, and why are we still listening to them?

Somehow, in our rush to paint Bush as the Anti-Christ, we have completely neglected to ask ourselves how this happened. There is the obvious answer, of course: Bush and his cronies stole Florida. I, however, cannot help but feel that the subversion of our democratic process four years ago was representative of a deeper flaw in our whole system.

My job has forced me to spend a lot of time reading up on Merrill Lynch's current dilemma, which has forced the company to complete revamp its rating and compensation systems. The root cause of the problem was ML's decision to calculate its analysts' bonuses based on how many shares of certain companies their customers bought. Needless to say, the concept of fair and balanced coverage became theoretical at best. The flaw in Merrill's system was obvious; if your analysts' bonuses are rewarded for creating hype, they no longer have any economic incentive to deliver accurate coverage to your clients. Instead, they will focus on selling as many shares of Company X as possible. Overnight, your Stanford-educated math geeks have been transformed into Prada-wearing spin whores.

Right now, you are probably wondering what this has to do with the current administration. First, read this. As you can see, this administration includes an unprecedented number of people clinging to corporate ties. Cheney, as I understand it, is still being paid by Halliburton (through his excecutive compensation package). This behavior is not confined to the administration, either. The potential for a conflict of interest, like the one afflicting Merrill, is tremendous.

I do not mean to bore you with conspiracy theories. Perhaps I am being hysterical, but Corporate America made these men rich. Odds are, as soon as they leave public service, that they will be provided with cushy synecures by their former employers. Even if you do not subscribe to this theory, you cannot deny the vast amounts of money corporations are pumping into the political machine. There is a reason Bush refers to them as his base; they are the financial foundation of the Republican Party.

Something must be done. Democracy is founded upon the idea that all men are created equal. By this logic, they should all be able to exert the same amount of influence over the political process. It is time we enforced this principle. We need to reform the system. We must ensure the incentives we offer to politicians coincide with our needs. Most importantly, we must somehow redefine Big Business' role in the political process.

And I'm spent.

Listening to: Alphabeta - Herbie Hancock