Earth to Congress
It often seems that politicians and the public live on two different planets. Ours is Earth.
Take the issue of campaign finance reform. “Oh the public doesn’t really give a damn about that,” claim the congressional opponents of reform. Earth to Congress critters: The public does give a very big damn.
Let’s run the numbers: Eighty percent of the public thinks that politicians often do special favors for those who give large campaign contributions. Seventy-four percent think this is unethical. Forty-six percent think this not only unethical, but illegal. Sixty-six percent think “soft money” (unlimited and unregulated contributions to political parties) ought to be banned.
Such huge poll numbers indicate not merely that the public “cares” about the way politics is financed, but that the public has outright contempt for the current system and its shady participants. Even politicians inside the system concede in their candid moments that all of this money grubbing not only tends to corrupt officeholders, but it also diverts their time from doing their real job and staying in touch with their constituents. In another survey, 55% of candidates for statewide offices say they spend at least one out of four of their waking hours raising money — and a fourth say they spend more than half of their time raising money.
Despite the public’s obvious desire to get the corrupt money out of the system, Congress is further out than Pluto. House Republican leaders are presently trying to squirrel passage of even the modest reform bill that would at least get rid of soft money. For real reform in your own state, contact Public Campaign: 202/293-0222.
Buying a Piece of History
Napoleon said, “History is a set of lies agreed upon.” So what are we to make of the new agreement being reached between the Smithsonian Institution and the General Motors Corporation? GM will plop down $10 million to remake the Hall of Transportation in the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History, which will feature a new exhibit called “America on the Move.” In turn, the giant automaker will get its name emblazoned across the hall.
It’s bad enough that a corporate brand is being seared onto yet another space that belongs to We the People, but this particular branding puts a proprietary taint on a world-renowned public institution whose very credibility depends on its independence, especially including its freedom from commercial hucksterism. Oh, tut tut, we’re assured by a GM mouthpiece. “We have no influence in the content” of the historical exhibit. “There is no influence wanted,” he says, “zero.” Likewise, a mouthpiece for the national museum coos that the corporation simply writes the check, leaving it to high-minded Smithsonian professionals “to educate the public about the ways transportation helped shape American history.” He adds that the GM-financed exhibit will be “historically accurate.”
Excellent. I for one look forward to seeing the exhibit educate the public about the important and little-told story of how General Motors took over Los Angeles’ rail-based trolley system in the 1950s and promptly terminated it, thereby eliminating any competition for the far-flung, car-based commuter system that now chokes the city with clogged highways and deadly air pollution. Maybe this exhibit could feature an animated recreation of GM officials paying off Los Angeles politicians in order to skew transportation policy, profit GM, and “shape American History.”
Don’t look for historical accuracy after the Smithsonian takes the money and kisses GM on the lips — look for a set of lies agreed upon.
Agitation Inside the Corporation
There are agitators even in the most buttoned-down of places … and Jamie Coulter is not happy about it.
Coulter is the multimillionaire chairman and CEO of the nationwide restaurant chain Lone Star Steakhouse & Saloon Inc. Like most CEOs, Coulter also maintains a seat on his corporation’s board of directors — a common management play that allows him to keep a tight rein on his board members and keep things running the way he wants. Or, rather, he did have a seat on the board … until Guy Adams started agitating.
Adams, a small stockholder with barely a thousand shares in the company (compared to five million owned by Coulter) was mad as hell, not only because Lone Star’s stock has been performing poorly under Coulter, but also because top management has lavished fat paychecks and special stock payments on itself.
So Adams audaciously upped and ran for the board seat held by CEO Coulter. He might have gone nowhere, except that Coulter’s corporate arrogance kicked in. The CEO unleashed company lawyers and operatives to go after this agitator, combing through his personal phone and credit-card records, trying to question his landlord, rummaging though court records of his divorce and revealing personal tidbits about his life to the big institutional shareholders whose votes would decide the board election. To try to intimidate him, Lone Star even sued Adams in federal court, charging that he was spreading false tales about management incompetence.
Ugly. So ugly that it backfired. Adams was not the only shareholder unhappy with Coulter’s corporate performance, and those shareholders were now appalled by Coulter’s personal performance to try to save his board seat, so they dumped him off the board.
Citizen agitation is essential, even inside the power structure.
Jim Hightower’s latest book, If the Gods Had Meant Us to Vote They Would Have Given Us Candidates, is available in a fully revised and updated paperback edition.
This article appears in August 10 • 2001.