Americans are so utterly naive! Or is it that their “corporate main-stream” media continually exploits them by feeding their naivete so few ever escape it? OMG the recent headlines about Hillary and Bill meeting and pandering to those who give them lots of money! OMG imagine that Trump has “bought” influence and access with his big money deals!
This has been the way of Washington (and other countries as well of course) for quite some time. The biggest difference is that the Americans like to pretend they are different and “exceptional” and that “corruption” is not their way. The reality is that the super-rich corporate class control the American government as well as Wall Street and the media and most of the NGO “private sector” as well. They use the politicians to get the laws written not only in ways that get them even more money but allow them to take over everything from media to NGOs to Universities to more politicians!
I have myself worked in my career for big-money insiders, including multi-millionaires and a billionaire, all of whom gave in various ways (all legal) and all of whom who had very special access to the powerful. I had such access as well just by representing them — much of the time all I had to do was mention their names to get in the door at very high levels. This went for meetings with top officials at the White House to arranging to get into the National Military Command Center (NMCC) at the Pentagon to the President of the Woodrow Wilson Center etc.
Even so…the Clinton special-interest special-access money-machine does seem to go beyond anything we’ve experienced before. The Clintons have been feeling and plotting their way ever since their Yale Law School meeting, always pushing the boundaries when it comes to money and access and policies. They did it super big-time when holding to of the highest public offices in our government…and that’s what it makes it all the more egregious.
Mark Bruzonsky 