That's a serious question.
For my entire life, I've assumed that Capitalism, an economic philosophy, and Democracy, a form of government, co-existed peacefully in the United States. The will of the market and the will of the people worked together, mostly symbiotically, to advance our common interests, creating opportunity and rewarding initiative while providing safety nets and protecting those who cannot protect themselves.
Government and business filling different, mutually reinforcing roles.
But now, I am starting to realize that this is not a symbiotic relationship.There is no actual peace; rather, there has been what you might call an uneasy truce. Government imposes regulations on industry only as far as industry permits it to. Via extensive lobbying and, increasingly, the direct shaping of elections, industry is beginning to flex its political muscles to the extent that everyday citizens -- voters -- will soon be largely irrelevant to the outcomes of elections.
Am I paranoid? Am I a conspiracy theorist? No, I am neither. In fact, I've discounted the tin-foil-hat-wearing crowd more times than I can count. But the evidence is becoming overwhelming that a new effort is taking shape within the forces of industry to seize control of the government -- OUR government -- as quickly as it can. Maybe not overtly, but it will have enough influence that the government will no longer be "of the people, by the people, for the people."
Some examples:
1. Owners and directors of corporations large and small are beginning to influence, intimidate, and threaten their employees into voting for the Republican party. http://www.cnbc.com/...
http://www.cnbc.com/...
http://inthesetimes.com/...
2. Republican Congressmen, like Rep. Joe Walsh (R-IL), are publicly suggesting to business owners that they direct their employees to vote for the GOP. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...
3. GOP Presidential candidate Mitt Romney asked employers to instruct their employees how to vote in the upcoming election. http://thinkprogress.org/...
4. Companies loyal to Republican politicians, if not partly owned by Republican politicians, are now building, owning, and operating electronic voting machines and directly collecting the vote tallies before the election boards see them! http://www.politicususa.com/...
The pattern seems fairly clear and, frankly, alarming. Democracy, where the PEOPLE choose their government, is not compatible with Plutocracy, where the government is controlled by a small number of very wealthy and powerful people.
Capitalism run amok has lead to unprecedented levels of wealth concentration in the United States. This wealth concentration has lead us to this point, where a small number of business owners can coerce thousands, if not millions, of their employees to vote into office a set of politicians who are favorable to further shifting power from the government to industry.
That leads directly to Plutocracy IF WE DO NOT ACT SWIFTLY.
You and I have no say in how corporations are run, but we DO have a say in how our government is run. As long as we insist that our government be accountable solely to us, the people, we can direct it to maintain a healthy relationship with industry and our corporations. But, if we permit the government to cede too much power to those industries that are now seeking to usurp control, we are surely on a path that has no corrective measure but outright revolution.
We can avoid that. We MUST avoid that. But to do so, we must not give the government over to the party that industry is so confident will be a partner in the wholesale dismantling of our representative Democracy. The Republican party wants nothing more than a private take-over of all things public. That is not in your best interest and it is not in mine. Your vote this November is your best tool for ensuring that we, the people, retain our voice.