The Blame Game surrounding the oil spill has BP blaming Transocean, the owner of the drilling rig, who in turn blames Halliburton’s cement work to cap the well. And of course, this is also a failure of the Minerals Management Services to evaluate and regulate the drilling operation, so many are blaming the “revolving door” between the MMS and industry. Without catering to corporate influence, the argument goes, the MMS would have acted more in favor of the public interest.
This “revolving door” reappears as a factor in every crisis, it seems. The financial crisis could have been averted had Washington not been in Wall Street’s pocket. Close the revolving door. The environmental and health problems surrounding food are due to agribusiness influence on the USDA, FDA, and food policy. Close the revolving door. Why do we fight? Washington is a key player in the military-industrial complex. Some even talk about an academic-industrial complex with is corrupting American higher education.
The Citizen’s United Supreme Court ruling was a step in the wrong direction. One can only hope that these recent tragedies give a renewal of vigor to movements such as the 28th Amendment Movement, which seeks an amendment to the US constitution called the Separation of Corporation and State, or the Move to Amend, which is part of the “Campaign to Legalize Democracy.”
[...] of small scale slaughethouses, the worker suicides in China, deficit debates, the movement for a separation of corporation and state, and Hilary Clinton’s [...]