He Who Controls the Megaphone

Two weeks ago the US Supreme Court tossed out the limits on what can be contributed by individuals or companies to politicians and political action committees. The court also tossed out what individuals or political action committees are able to spend on political advocacy advertisements in the weeks before an election.

The Court’s 5-4 majority position is that contribution limits hinder free speech, stifle dialogue and hinder the election process. These wise judges on the Court dismiss the idea that money can influence elections. They do agree that a small group who can control the megaphone, outshout their opponents and can pour money into slick messaging will overpower the message and arguments of their opponents and in the process determine who will be in power.

Essentially their position is that minor parties who have tried to get candidates elected have not been successful because the messages of these candidates have not had any traction. Lack of access to the public forum has little to do with their lack of success.

American and world history is replete with examples of the powerful installing elected officials into office and having them function more or less as their puppets. Over the centuries various despots have learned that he who is able to control the mass communication process will control the masses. The Iranian government fully understands this principle as it used the mass communication system over and over again to limit the extent and then to quell the protests over the election process.

Over the last 13 Presidential elections since 1960 the Republicans have won seven times. Over the last 9 Presidential elections the Republicans have won five times. Rarely has 58% or more of the House or Senate been in the hands of one party. If the Court is correct there will not be a significant shift in this pattern over the next ten to fifteen years. On the other hand if critics of the Court's ruling are correct, out ten years there will be fewer Democratic victories in races for the House, Senate and White House with well healed corporations and the wealthy pouring money into candidates of their choice, most likely Republican races. Increasingly Democrats will sound like current Republicans and more Republicans will start to sound like Forbs 500 executives. The end result is that America could move towards having the trapings of a democracy with elected officials functioning as an extension of an oligarchy.

The theory that he who controls the megaphone controls the election results is about to be tested.

Iran - My Thoughts

Like many others I’m following the events in Iran with some interest. Clearly there is concern in Iran over the announced election results in Iran. I cannot attest to the veracity of the concerns but there is a clear disparity between the pre-election polls and announced results. Such a disparity between the results and the pre-election polls in a US or Canadian election would be extremely disconcerting too.

Iran is experiencing high unemployment (some figures peg it between 20 and 22%) and economic stagnation. Though there are concerns within the citizenry that various local authorities are corrupt and self-serving, the upper eulachon of the ruling authorities are seem to be turning a blind eye to such charges. Governing authorities make sweeping charges blaming the wows of the nation upon the shoulders of external powers and groups rather than accepting responsibility for their nation’s problems and doing something about the struggles of the average citizen. Protestors are viewed as enemies of the state. Through their religious police and militia the brutality of Iranian government is stunning.

We have seen this story before in Iran. In the past Iranian protestors who have questioned the validity of the governing authorities have been met with brutal oppression and sweeping arrests. Some who were arrested disappeared forever. As in the past we are again witnessing the secret police and selected military units vigorously beating protestors and other bystanders. We are again seeing the government dismissing the concerns of the protestors and through government controlled media telling a story that does not match what the average citizen is seeing happening on the street. We are again seeing a government not being far from truthful with its people.

In the past, it was the Shah’s brutal regime that was the focus of the populist protest. Today, it is those who fueled the protests against the Shah and became the new leaders who are brutalizing and oppressing their fellow citizens. The current regime is as tyrannical as the Shah’s and are behaving much like the Shah’s regime that they cried out had lost its legitimacy to govern. Both are brutal, both oppressive, both with uncaring upper leadership, and both attempting to repress the populous while only loosing the respect of the nation to lead and govern. Both police states. Both through their actions are showing the level of corruption and the extent that they will go to hold to power.

The primary difference is that then the regime was a secular regime that gave lip service to religion whereas today’s is a strict conservative religious regime that gives lip service to modern life and human dignity. It seems that Iran’s leadership unapologetically feels free to do the same things as the Shah because they are doing it in the name of their religion whereas the Shah did it not in the name of religion. From 1976 to 1979 the supreme ruling authority the Shah proved to be an unfit ruler and his power rightly ended in 1979. Irrespective of their misguided religious justification, today’s the Supreme Leader and his holy cadre are walking down the same road as the Shah and as the Shah showed himself to be an unfit leader so too are the current governing authorities.