Reflecting on yesterday's Iowa Caucus, I have come to a couple of conclusions. Firstly, I am glad that the participants in that particular exercise, entertaining as they are, do not come close to representing Americans as a whole. The stream of anti-poor, anti-immigrant and anti-environment rhetoric was overwhelming. In fact there was a time not long ago, that such verbiage would have been laughed off as satirical caricature. Unfortunately, they actually seem to be serious, or at least they would like to convince evangelicals and libertarians in Iowa and New Hampshire that they are.
Secondly, the vote was heavily swayed by a huge injection of money made possible by the "Citizens United" decision of 2010. If this is an indication of how the electoral process will will be conducted in the future, then it is nothing less then a complete disaster for democracy.
In America, we have bought into a culture that says that the amount of Gods love any of us receives is in direct proportion to the amount of material wealth one has accumulated. This is a curious philosophy that has no basis in Christian scripture, or either of the other two Semitic religion as far as I know, and is harmful if not fatal to healthy political discourse.
If Iowa has shown us anything, it is that, with recent changes in the law, elected office is for sale. The future bodes ill and the prospects are chilling. It begs the question: have we passes a tipping point? Are we now completely and irredeemably a corporate state? More to come.
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