"Interest Goups" in Illinois are corrupted?

Tammy Duckworth and Joe Walsh

About the Common Myth "interest groups are corrupting influence on politics..."

Sorry ...it is  from my 'poliSci paper'..with little modification!

    When we are understanding the complex world around us, one of the usual, intellectual “shortcut” which we are using.. is called “myth”—Ever since the days of the ancient Greeks who created the mythical stories to make sense of their “universe” or “cosmos...” When we try to understand today's government and the people's political behavior, we are also using  them- myth and stories-...  to make sense of it.

   Lately, the term “interest groups” frequently appears in the media. .. “Apparently, a majority of Americans believe in the myth: interest groups are a corrupting influence in politics, ” because usually, the Americans “suspect interest groups of dishonesty and corrupting the political process by unduly influencing government, most often by ‘buying’ members of Congress through campaign contributions ...”  Such a myth has been existing since the government of America was founded—Meanwhile, the Greeks also promoted the value of logos “as a means of enhancing the knowledge derived from mythos ” …We also need to explore more rational explanation to analyze, if the myth is true or not.

    There are countless lobbyists officially registered in D.C, who represent the vested interest of various groups and individuals. "They are seeking the access to the Congressmen, their staffers and executive branch officials to try to influence their decisions..". While they are categorized as either “Economic Interest Groups,” “Citizen Activist Interest Groups,” “Government Interest Groups,” or “Foreign Nation Interest Groups..” they are not so often, openly reported by the media. Therefore, if I...occasionally would find single line of the media articles which mentions particular interest groups which exist behind some ongoing political issue, it seems impressively standing out for me, because the interest groups are usually inscrutable—and I think we the readers have our rights to know about it.

     For example, they say the "fluid nature of politics" are often, under the control of so-called “Economic Interest Groups” who seek narrow business interest in some specific field (..for example, NRA, or the Chamber of Commerce of each state.) it also reminds me of the complicated interest groups' issue about  Illinois’ “Casino Law” –Lately, the State Governor Pat Quinn has been just opposing the legalization of state-run casino, while Mayor Emanuel is pushing it.  It is also about the competition with other states’ casinos, such as the “group of casino investors in Wisconsin (or Indiana).” The news papers say, “Casino backers” actually, also include such people or organizations as.. “Nii-Jii Entertainment,” and “Menominee Indian tribe .".who tried to bring an Indian-owned casino to Kenosha.." Also, allegedly, there are “corrupt labor union leaders, and their lawyers” backing the bill, because the union workers in Illinois “desperately need jobs” now.

      As a leisure entertainment, casino gambling may not be everyone’s interest, but maybe, it is just for the particular enthusiasts’ interests. Pat Quinn dislikes the casino’s expansion, since he anticipates, “if it is legalized, “mobs will follow (meaning: political corruption and crime syndicate infiltration will follow)” –because “after all, this is Chicago… (reported by Associated Press).” On the other hand, the Mayor Emanuel actually, started to emphasize his intention to utilize casino’s expected profit for building and renovating of “up to 25 public schools in Chicago,” repaving of the streets, renovation of “L” tracks, improvement of city water mains, and so on-- It means the CPS and CTA also join the interest groups behind casino?  Stating this way, he must be trying to distract the oppositions. While Governor Quinn is continuously vetoing the bill, this might be an example that interest groups are kind of creepy, and spurious people.

     Also, another topic about "interest groups.." is found here: a long time controversy was solved in California in  2011, with the passage of the California Dream ACT, signed by new governor Brown..(after the ex-Governor Schwarzenegger’s step down..). Not to mention, it was widely supported by Latino interest groups, such as La Raza (NCLR.) Obama’s White House has been also supporting the idea of Dream ACT  with unusual enthusiasm..and such a policy was strongly related to his re-election campaign. It actually worked, and huge Latino voters turned out to vote for him for the reelection. (Obama gained about 71 percent of the Latino vote nationwide, compared to Mitt Romney's 27 percent.) A columnist says,  “President Obama won reelection essentially by bestowing ‘gifts’ to minority voters, the young and women through his policies and campaign promises”.. “Romney cited …the forgiveness of interests on college loans essentially as bribes that helped put Obama over the top.” –Even Romney is suggesting (or lamenting) the money for these interest groups is given as the political bribes.. As a result, Obama gained overwhelming minority support: more than 70 percent among Hispanic and Asians and 94 percent from fellow black..

    The most significant incident about the Super PAC (which is representative of interest groups) was also found in the latest “nastiest” fight between the former Illinois Congressman Joe Walsh and Tammy Duckworth.. There was barrage of negative campaign ads (created by the super PACs supporting both candidates, who were attacking each other) aired on TV in Chicago, until the Election Day. Everyone complained that these escalation of the ads annoyed them.. Reportedly, the PAC who supported Walsh was “The Now or Never” super PAC (a pro-Tea Party PAC, funded by the conservative Americans for Limited Government...who announced to spend $2.7million for him, although.. later they curbed into $1 million,) and “Freedom Works for America,” who spent $1.7 million for him.(Walsh stood against the “transportation bill,” which was also, against “Now or Never” PAC’s interest)...”  NBC has reported,

“Outside super PACs and national party groups have contributed nearly $6.6 million to the Walsh-Duckworth race. Rep. Joe Walsh […] is getting a bailout from a Super PAC in Kansas City, far outside the 8th Congressional District of Illinois. [Walsh needed such a big money..] because in the last fundraising quarter, Duckworth raised $1.5 million, while Walsh raised only $250,000.”

      His opponent, Duckworth was supported by the super PAC (“born out of cell phone company CREDO Mobile”.)  The group aimed to raise money not only to defeat Walsh, but also, to defeat 9 other Tea Party Republican candidates in other states...) 

      The media often mentioned that Walsh was “bought by the PAC.” These PACs declared that they raise the money, simply because they antagonize with..or just hate their opponents.  It sounds ridiculous..if there is no means to stop this crazily heating, corrupting political race..made by both Duckworth and Walsh. It give me a touch of  monstrous, Orwellian fantasy story.. It turns to be the strong evidence to support the negative myth—which claims “interest groups are corrupt and dirty.” 

        When it comes to the size of the campaign money in the 2012 election, Barack Obama raised $934 million (Candidate + DNC 91%;  Super PAC 7%). Mitt Romney raised $881.8 million (Candidate + RNC 83%; Super PAC 15%) (NYtimes said.)  Our PoliSci textbook is also mentioning the figures: “In 2008,[…] over $35 million was spent on the Minnesota Senate race between Republican incumbent Norm Coleman and Democratic challenger Al Franken,” “In the 2010 California gubernatorial campaign, Republican Meg Whitman spent over $142 million of her own money.” “During the 2010 election cycle, PACs contributed more than $375 million to congressional candidates.”.Compared to them, the money donated to Walsh and Duckworth may be relatively small, however, it was for the local election. And still, these figures are compatible to the size of budget for the major advertising campaigns for the new big product.

     When they say, there is also “Citizen Activist Interest Groups” who try to represent the public interests,  one of such groups is “IIRON,” who held the civilian protest rally at the downtown earlier this month. “IIRON” is an umbrella organization of some student organizations, joined by some civilian groups. Some students from our school's movement organization also joined them, protesting against the state Senator Dick Durbin’s endorsement for the unreasonable, 2013 budget showdown.(The bill aims to do the drastic budget cut, which would eliminate the budgets for various welfare programs such as education, housing, Medicare, and job-related programs for Illinois’ people. (The amount of budget sequestration planned for the “Department of Human Services,” “Department of Education,” “Department of Labor” of Illinois for fiscal 2013 is $196,965,182 in total, to be cut out from the total $2,544,140,178... spent in 2012.) They declared to cut the budget as the austerity measures in the economic downfall, but simultaneously, they still give the tax cuts to the richest 2%, or the large corporations..

    

  At the site of the protest, I talked to four people at the park at State & Van Buren. I asked them about: who (or.. what kind of “Interest Groups,” if any…) they would think are supposed to exist behind the current...draconian state budget cut.. A middle aged white woman said, she thinks the “Interest Groups” behind must be “Military industry (such as “Halliburton” and “Boeing”)”, “Exxon Mobile,” “General Electrics,” etc. The other white woman named Stephanie, who is around 40 years old and a member of Illinois Single Payers Coalition: opposing the Medicare budget cut.. said, it must be the “insurance companies.”  I also talked to other fellow students from my school—a guy named Zach said, “I think it’s mainly, the banks.” A female student (named Lilly) said, “it must be the big corporations who contributed money to the campaigns of politicians, when they ran for the office.”

   - It might have been somewhat like leading questions, since I actually questioned the people about the “interest groups” at the site of civilian protest; so.. they gave me clear cut answers. However, these ordinary people surely have misgivings about the existence of selfish interest groups who are affecting the state budget policy.  If they can influence the election campaign by money, who can stop the undemocratic legislation? It may only cause “richest is strong” society, and it must be what we are seeing now in America. The Supreme Court’s decision, which allowed PAC sounds inscrutable.

      The other..most obvious issue, concerning the interest groups must be “ACORN controversy.” of some years ago. ACORN (Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now) was the association of community-based organizations, who gave various social welfare services for moderate-income people. (“ACORN was a collection of grass-roots organizations that serve as an advocate for the poor. It began in the 1970s and now has about 1,200 chapters.") They had their chapters in more than 1,200 U.S. neighborhoods, as well as some branches overseas. They also had PAC and supported Jesse Jackson in 1980’s..  Lately, ACORN also cooperated with IRS and US Census Bureau. . However, concerning the allegation of voter registration fraud in 2008 election, they were trapped by two young conservative activists who created fraudulent scandal videos…While I didn’t know the consequence of what happened after then—if I check the web today, I find: this broad, grass-roots..socialistic organization was already, brought into dissolution in 2010..I guess it may illustrates how Barack Obama has already …dexterously used the Internet by himself in 2008 election for raising money for himself, mirroring the formidable, grass-roots voter mobilization organization like ACORN, or the super PACs?

     

         Considering the legitimacy of the interest groups,  the influence of their money’s power should be eliminated—because legitimacy is the most important, center issue of the democracy. If you openly publicize who is behind the public education bill (for example, a white politician doesn’t want to properly allocate the budget to the public schools in low income neighborhood, and if the people see their names in the media, they can oppose.)  The public can check if the interest groups are with genuine legitimacy, regardless of the group’s financial strength or size. But it must be physically impossible…if everybody needs to check every bill submitted - like civilian surveillance-  unless the people of entire society would become “congress members”?

    Naturally, .if someone with limited “legitimacy” behaves “beyond one’s legitimacy” enhanced by money, and if another countervailing force behaves against the former, also with the enhanced power of their money,  the society is supposed to be put in mess.. It wouldn’t be a harmonized society anymore.  (Even if they importance on the value of “freedom of individuals” as American creed—logically, it is already, morally and economically failing..) As the bottom line, the negative “myth” of the interested group is credible. Even if the political world indispensably needs the lobbyist activities for practical convenience,  it is almost all about the chase of power and undemocratic money..simply in a  frantic manner.