On my ride home from State College this week after picking up my books, I decided to give my grandma a call to have a laugh and catch up. Only 10 minutes into the call I found myself telling her about all my petty little problems. She listened, laughed, and responded, “You know Griff, remember what PopPop always said, ‘Money Talks, Bullshit Walks.'” After the phone call I was thinking for the rest of the ride home, what does Nanny mean?
You can take this idiom however you may. For me, I often find myself worrying about the wrong things instead of what will set me up for future success, like school. Now you may be thinking, it’s just a little quote, and what does it have anything to do with me?
It has everything to do with you. It has everything to do with us.
They call the game politics and the players politicians. They say to win the game the politicians need to connect with the most amount of people possible and ensure them that the their future is full of prosperity if they are the elected candidate. That’s funny because it is everything but that. As Nanny would say, “that walks.”
These politicians may seem bold during debates and commercials; however, there is a game behind the game. A powerful one. A game that is managed by the influence of the wallet more so than the voices of people like you and me.
This wallet is jammed inside the pockets of corporations who influence elections with their monetary power. The greedy corporations strive to control politicians so that their business can thrive. The Koch brothers have been one of the most politically influential corporations that this country has ever seen. Their goal is to support politicians who will drive down their costs of operating a business. The Koch Brothers are one of the leading producers of fossil fuels in the world, may be why their support of some politicians has caused them to downplay the impact of global warming.
It’s not just the Koch brothers pulling on the strings of these politicians. According to the Center for Responsive Politics, “less than one-fourth of one percent of the U.S. population accounted for over two-thirds of federal contributions in 2014.” This is more data to prove that politicians are corporation puppets. They say they are for the people, but how could they possibly go against corporations funding your campaign?
Like every other election, they are calling this upcoming presidency race “the biggest election of our lifetimes.” They say every vote counts. But does it really? While we all complain or support political candidates on Twitter and in heated discussions, at the end of the day a very few people in this country have a lot more influence on us than politics itself. We call our candidates corrupt, but they are just playing the game to win. The system is really what is corrupt.
