Government Regulation Makes for a More Civil Union

There are few things that can counterbalance the influence and greed of corporations and concentrated wealth. Government regulation is the most effective. The rise of the American government is in some ways a history of the rise of corporations and the various attempts to keep those corporations in check. Not only can regulation curb abuses, but it can help guide the direction of our society.

Consider this: if the Bush administration had admitted that there is a man-made climate change crisis, it could have led the Republican-majority Congress into enacting laws that would reward innovation and investment into alternative forms of energy. A non-delusional president with the power of his party backing him might have come up with block grants to states and cities to construct low-carbon emissions public transportation systems that would clear urban areas of automobile pollution.

Instead we have the dismantling of the professionalism of the federal government and the concentration of wealth into a very few people who have benefited from the last eight years.

Congress allowed the clout of the oil companies to dictate energy policy, and the Supreme Court, sometimes controlled by four ideologues trained by the Federalist Society, refused to shed any light on the identities of the oil company cabal who advised Dick Cheney in his secret energy meetings.

Deregulation brought an accumulation of wealth into the energy sector and drained resources from innovation, manufacturing, and our futures.

Deregulation also permitted concentration of media into just a few players. As newspapers fade in influence, we notice that there are fewer sources of investigative reporting. Television news is entertainment mostly, and the cable stations, well, the drive to fill 24-7 has created a false sense of news. Rumors about news overshadow any real news.

A report issued by researchers at Ball State University in Ohio found that two stories dominated the media these last two years: the war in Iraq and the presidential election. These two stories accounted for over 40% of media coverage. However, neither focused on the issues over which citizens have any control. Rather the constancy of these stories became disempowering and disengaging, because there was really nothing we could do about either. However, stories about education, health care, employment, housing, land use, environment, food security, and how local and state governments work might have had the impact of informing an electorate into organized action. They accounted for less than 1% of coverage.

Instead we became a country obsessed about American Idol and Dancing With the Stars, degrading the right to vote to how we feel about a contestant. As we listen to interviews and media rhetoric about the election, we see the impact of entertainment on our political beings. How we feel about a candidate should be irrelevant. What should matter is their values, priorities, and approaches to the crucial issues facing us as a nation and as residents of a crowded and troubled planet.

When we don't have regulation over how admissions work at colleges, how municipal and state contracts are bid, and how governments employ, people of color suffer. Not only do they lose out by not getting into school, forgoing government contracts and jobs, but those who do manage entry are often burdened by overt racism made less socially wrong because of a general attitude opposing affirmative action.

I would prefer to live in a clean environment, among communities of diverse, knowledgeable, and informed people.