Editor’s note: This commentary is by Joseph Gainza, the founder of Vermont Action for Peace and the producer and host of “Gathering Peace” on WGDR and WGDH. He lives in Marshfield.
During World War II and especially during the Vietnam War, African-American Marines and soldiers asked whether they were fighting for freedom and democracy when in the nation under whose flag they fought they were treated as second-class citizens or worse.
After the world war many of these veterans returned to Jim Crow America and began to organize the modern civil rights movement. When in 1967 Muhammad Ali was drafted for the Vietnam War, he refused, saying that no Vietcong ever called him the n-word. These men asked the fundamental question of war: “What are we fighting for?”
In McCutcheon vs. Federal Election Commission, in a 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court recently declared unconstitutional caps on the total amount of money an individual donor can give to political candidates, parties and political action committees. This decision, along with their infamous 2010 ruling in Citizens United, which opened the gates to corporations spending as much as they want on elections, solidifies the power of big money to overwhelm the democratic process and tie politicians tighter to the purse strings of the 1%.
Foreign trade agreements are negotiated in secret, such as the Trans Pacific Partnership, where Congress is kept mainly in the dark while corporate leaders have access to the negotiation table.
With the greatest disparity of wealth in the U.S. since the 1920s, there has rarely been more influence by the rich over U.S. domestic and foreign policy. Low- and middle-income men and women serving in the armed forces of the U.S., those who fight America’s wars and come home to a jobless economy, if they come home at all, might very well ask themselves why they are fighting.
Look at Rep. Paul Ryan’s proposed federal budget, which further enriches the already rich and reduces funds for programs that benefit the poor and vulnerable, and it is easy to see who calls the shots on federal policy.
Foreign trade agreements are negotiated in secret, such as the Trans Pacific Partnership, where Congress is kept mainly in the dark while corporate leaders have access to the negotiation table. Leaked sections of the agreement would, if passed by a Congress not allowed to amend it, curtail freedom of expression and undermine further an already weakened democratic process.
Wars to protect U.S. “interests,” which are never defined but always closely aligned with the interests of the economic elite, are fought primarily by those whose political voice the Supreme Court seems bent on silencing. It is high time that the 99% ask “what are we fighting for?”
Editor’s note: This post has been updated to remove a racist slur to be in line with VTDigger’s current editorial standards.
