In Search of Tomorrow

Ahead of Ecuador’s Feb. 7 presidential elections, Vijay Prashad describes the measures the U.S. and local oligarchy have taken to suffocate any progressive government.

Money floods the system, eats into the loyalties of politicians, corrupts the institutions of civil society, and shapes the narratives of the media.

[consortiumnews.com]

It matters that the dominant classes in our world own the main communications outlets and that these outlets shape the way people decipher the world around us. Although the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights affirms that “Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression” (Article 19), the plain fact is that the concentration of the media in the hands of a few corporate entities circumscribes the freedom to “impart information and ideas through any media.”

A year later, a massive $14 billion was spent on the U.S. presidential and congressional elections, with the winning Democrat Party dominating the spending. These are massive amounts of money, whose grip on the democratic process is quite clear by now. Is it possible to talk about “democracy” without being candid about the erosion of the democratic spirit by this avalanche of money?

This avalanche of money is to support capitalism. Democracy is a lie.