by Senator Sheldon Whitehouse and Melanie Wachtell Stinett, 2017
Captured: The Corporate Infiltration of American Democracy (2017), by Senator Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island with Melanie Wachtell Stinett, tells the story from the belly of the beast. To have a sitting senator dare to speak truth to his colleagues and to us about the subterfuge that has taken over Congress, the Supreme Court, and the mind of the President is hopeful, a word I rarely use of late.
I say “the mind of the President” because they write that in 2009, Donald Trump, Sr. and Jr., Eric, and Ivanka all signed an ad directed at President Obama saying,
“We support your effort to ensure meaningful and effective measures to control climate change, an immediate challenge facing the United States and the world today. Please don’t postpone the Earth. If we fail to act now, it is scientifically irrefutable that there will be catastrophic and irreversible consequences for humanity and our planet.”
During his campaign for president, he was persuaded to claim, “climate change is a hoax”, presumably to help him get elected.
The book details the methods used by corporations, their benefactors including dark money, and the Republican Party to capture the court, elections, Citizens United, regulatory agencies, and the civil jury, the last new info for me. It spends good time on the issue of climate change. Although it covers corporate power issues we may already understand, it does so clearly, persuasively, and usefully in one volume as we approach another election.
