“If you want to get involved in business,” Sen. Orrin Hatch warned technology companies at a conference in 2000, “you should get involved in politics.” Hatch was referring to the shortcomings of then-software king Microsoft, which he had spent most of the previous decade harassing from his perch as Judiciary Committee chairman. The message was clear: If you become successful, you must hire lobbyists, you must start a political action committee, and you must donate to politicians. Otherwise Washington will make your life very difficult.
Most governments are just a disorganized form of organized crime…
That statement is straight out of Atlas Shrugged, where it is portrayed as pure evil. The system that requires such tribute can not long stand.
Rand was a sociopath that based her “heroes” on the child butcherer William Edward Hickman whom she idolized as “Superman” because he saw all other beings as being beneath himself.
As for the topic at hand, quid pro quo is absolutely nothing new, especially when a company wants to get an edge on their competition by getting a massive government contract, with the hopes that the contract becomes so large they can become the defecto standard.
The most recent examples you will find of this are all the massive campaign contributions being collected by SuperPACs and the bribes being given out by K Street lobbyists. This time around it’s plain to see which candidate the major companies are backing, he’s the one most likely to personally align himself with Rand’s philosophy.
Romney raises $250k+ from 700+ donors, nets over $175 Million
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-57458337-503544/weekend-of-s…
David and Charles Koch pledging $100 million to defeat Obama
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/02/03/koch-brothers-100-million-…
Sheldon Adelson pledging $100M to Romney
http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2012/06/14/sheldon-adelson-will…
Karl Rove’s and Ed Gillespie’s Croassroads and Crossroads GPS SuperPACs doubling their goal of $120 million after already netting $117 million
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0911/63048.html
You can blame the Supreme Court for this idiocy, back in 2010 their 5/4 decision to recognize companies as people and money as speech instead of property allows anyone from anywhere on earth to dump an unlimited amount of money into any political campaign they want, so the companies are the ones pulling the strings.
Edited 2012-06-26 04:42 UTC
…or anyone else less maniacal who can understand the evils of a system being abused without resorting to having a large golden dollar sign placed at her funeral…
The US political system is largely driven by lobbyists. They effectively wield veto power over any legislation they don’t like.
The result is that any large company — in ANY field — must lobby to remain successful. The great Orin Hatch is Exhibit A for this corrupted system.
We’ve always had lobbyists but most observers agree it’s reached a critical point. Unless we change this situation it is unlikely we can address our debt and declining standard of living.
Wait…this is news??