Today I read with interest the latest news from the US that the Supreme Court ruled for the right of corporations and unions to directly provide financing for political campaigns, just as I also read an editorial in the Kiev Times lamenting the ties that both presidential candidates had to big businesses. Of course, Westerners call big business in Ukraine and Russia the Mafia, while in the US, they are simply businesses promoting the American Way. But the truth is, they are the same--in business for their own short-term profits, at any expense.
Sure, most American corporations don't resort to violence to get what they want, but I suspect that is only because they don't need to. The voice of Corporate America is heard more loudly and firmly in Washington than any other already, and the Court's ruling makes it so loud that it will inevitably drown out anyone else's....if it could be heard before.
Ukrainians must choose between the lesser of two evils in their presidential candidates while the international community scoffs at the endemic corruption of this system. But why don't the same people scoff at the outrageous power and influence big business has on the American political and social system? Is it not essentially the same? At least Ukrainians understand they're voting either for the candidate who makes some pretensions to democracy (Tymoshenko) and another who does not (Yanukovych). Americans don't even seem to realize that their interests have been completely abandoned in favor of corporate chieftains who make more money than God himself and who can only see as far as next quarter's performance. Read for yourself:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/22/opinion/22fri1.html
http://www.kyivpost.com/news/opinion/editorial/detail/57736/
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