Dollarocracy: How the Money and Media Election Complex is Destroying America.

• Author: Fischer, Raymond L.
• Position: Book review

DOLLAROCRACY

How the Money and Media Election Complex Is Destroying America

BY john Nichols and Robert W. McChesney

Nation Books, N.Y.

2013, 284 PAGES, $26.00

Associate editor of the Capitol Times of Madison, Wis., John Nichols serves as Nation magazine's Washington, D.C., correspondent and contributing writer for Progressive and In These Times. He frequently appears on radio and TV programs as a commentator on politics and media issues. Robed W. McChasney, professor of Communication at the University of Illinois, has authored 23 books and cofounded Free Press, a national media reform organization. Nichols and McChesney have coauthored four previous books concerning media.

The authored coined the term dollarocracy to define the political system in which filthy rich individuals and giant corporations "control most of the dollars ... and most of the power." One dollar/one vote, not one person/one vote, now determines the course of the nation. The antithesis of democracy, dollarocracy gives power to the elites. As a result, the U.S. experiences more "in-equality, corruption, poverty, stagnation, and decline."

During the 2012 campaign, former Pres. Jimmy Carter termed the political process "shot through with financial corruption ... because of the excessive influx of money." Carter asserted that the 2010 Supreme Court's ruling in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission (FEC), which allowed unlimited campaign financing, "would drown out the voices of everyday Americans."

Writing to alert the citizenry that they must recognize the extent of the crisis, the authors analyze "forces--billionaires, corporations, politicians who do their bidding, and media conglomerates that facilitate the abuse," and explain what Americans must do to get the nation "back on the democratic grid" Candidates, parties, super PACs, wealthy individuals, corporate-in-kind donors, and "shadowy dark money groups" contributed more than $10,000,000,000 throughout the 2012 election; the presidential race itself cost approximately $6,000,000,000. As campaigns grow more expensive, "they grow more deliberately absurd and thuggish: uglier, crueler, more distorted and dishonest." The authors term the present situation "a racket" that defines politics.

Who are the architects of dollarocracy? The authors blame Lewis Powell, John Roberts, and the Robber Baron Court. In 1971, Powell, a Virginia lawyer and Richard Nixon appointee to the Supreme Court, directed to the Chamber of...