‘Both US parties controlled by families, corporations’

America’s Republican and Democratic Parties are controlled by big industries, wealthy families, and large corporations, an American political analyst and activist says.

Myles Hoenig made the remarks in an interview with Press TV on Friday while commenting on a report which says that the Koch brothers spent some $400 million on US politics in 2015 and are planning to spend $899 million to shape this year’s US presidential election.

The Koch donor network, which is overseen by the conservative billionaires Charles G. and David H. Koch, held its annual winter donor retreat at a luxury resort near Palm Springs, California, on Saturday.

It was revealed in the previous gatherings that the huge budget would allow the organization to operate at the same financial scale as the Democratic and Republican Parties.

The Koch brothers wield significant financial and political influence on US politics, both directly and indirectly, via various advocacy and lobbying organizations.

The Koch brothers are the sons of Fred C. Koch, who founded Koch Industries, the second-largest privately held company in the United States.

The brothers have contributed heavily to conservative campaigns and think tanks. They are among the best-known Republican donors, and potential GOP candidates court their favor.

Hoenig said, “It has long been a problem in American elections that corporations and individuals outright control nearly all aspects of the process. Their enormous wealth dictates both policies and who will be their willing spokespeople.”  

“The Kochs are certainly the main target because they hold the largest war chest for the Republicans and their extremist ideology. Their far right wing politics goes back to the days of their father, one of the founders of the John Birch Society, a notorious right wing, anti-communist, racist organization. It has lost its favor but their descendants are prominent in Republican and ‘patriot’ circles,” he added.

Kochs, emblematic of US system

The analyst said the Koch brothers are “emblematic of our bought system. There isn’t a piece of conservative legislation or state legislature that doesn’t have its fingerprints all over. ALEC, the American Legislative Exchange Council, is heavily funded by these brothers and others."

"It is a consortium of conservative legislators who write legislation, often related to reversing civil rights or limiting government regulations on the very industries ALEC is tied to, and take them back to legislatures for adoption,” he added. 

“Although ALEC acts in secrecy, there is much more scrutiny on them now. The Kochs are very much out in the open as to what their game plan is, electing far right wing legislators. But they are not alone. Many of the same corporations tied to the Kochs, ALEC, and others also support the Democrats. Monsanto, for example, has been a member of ALEC since 1992 yet is a heavy player with the Democrats and the Obama administration,” he stated.

“Their power is so enormous that they influenced legislation in California to the point of getting the voters to reject a simple plan to notify consumers of what’s in their food, considering that GMOs seem to be in everything. A vice president of Monsanto even heads the Food and Drug Administration, which regulates food safety,” he noted.

“The Kochs and many other corporations have near complete control of both the electoral and legislative processes. Incidentally, Clarence Thomas, a Supreme Court Justice, is a former Monsanto attorney. In this election cycle we see Bernie Sanders bringing this out as a central theme. The position of the Green Party has always been opposed to corporate interests’ control,” the activist said.  

“Hillary Clinton receives millions of dollars from the very industries she claims need to be reigned in, which certainly challenges her credibility. As long as either of the Democrats or Republicans maintain sole control of all things politics, it’s highly unlikely we’ll see anything other than a slight moderation of corporate control,” Hoenig concluded.

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