Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) speaks during a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington, May 17, 2016. McConnell has brought in at least $1.3 million over his 30-year career from the NRA and is one of the 56 senators to vote against popular gun control bills brought forward in the wake of the deadly mass shooting in Orlando. (Photo: Zach Gibson / The New York Times)
In just five short months, voters across the country will head to their local polling place to vote for local, state and federal offices to pretend we have a functioning democracy. But the truth is, our democracy is broken.
We make it difficult for whole groups of people to participate, like people of color, seniors, college students and low-income Americans. We cast our ballots on privately owned machines, but we have no way of telling whether they’re counted correctly.
Our elections are primarily funded by corporate elite and billionaires who funnel their donations through dark money organizations. As former President Jimmy Carter pointed out on my radio program last year, the flood of money into our politics has effectively undermined US democracy and left us with American oligarchy. But the corrupting influence of money in politics hasn’t just compromised our democracy; it’s costing American lives.
See more news and opinion from Thom Hartmann at Truthout here.
Just one week after one of the deadliest mass shootings in US history, four gun control bills were brought forward in the Senate. The substance of the gun control bills had a tremendous amount of popular support: 92 percent of Americans polled support a universal background check to prevent people with felonies from buying guns and 85 percent support a “no-fly, no-buy” bill. That’s people of both parties!
So, how many of those laws that pretty much all of us wanted actually passed the…