The United States Chamber of Commerce has recently taken out a great deal of ads supporting candidate for senator, Carly Fiorina, a former CEO of Hewlett Packard. To date, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce has spent 4.9 million dollars trying to help Fiorina win, more than the chamber has spent on any other race.The Chamber of Commerce is mainly donating this money because they feel that California needs a senator who is favorable towards a change in economy, something the chamber has been trying to revamp for quite some time.
While the chamber's enthusiastic support for Fiorina may be perceived by some to be perfectly acceptable, I believe that the chamber's move has intruded upon the sacred rights of citizens to choose their own representatives.
For those of you who do not know, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce is NOT an agency of the United States government. Instead, it is a lobbying group with members consisting of businesses from across the United States and around the world.
I find it ridiculous that an entity not wholly related to California should be attempting to sway a political election in California just so that their business plan may be put into motion. Do they really have California's best interests in hand? Is having California's best interests in hand even possible for a group that is only remotely related to California? While the chamber has claimed that they do not spend any foreign money on political activities, I still find it slightly unrealistic given that the Chamber of Commerce has remained antagonistic towards President Obama's demands to grant transparency to their donor list.
I believe that Californian voters will have to be weary in the upcoming elections. We cannot afford to let our votes be, in essence, bought by foreign factors. We need to take a close look at the issues at hand and decide whether or not Carly Fiorina really has the best plan for California over Barbara Boxer. Don't let a group of businesses decide for us.
Please note, this post is not to say that Carly Fiorina is in anyway unfit to be senator. Fiorina has held the same position as previous CEO of HP, Mark Hurd, a respectable and incredibly successful businessman.
1 comment:
I think that you make a sound argument, Dan. I'm glad that you alluded to our class "money is fungible" discussion when describing the Chamber of Commerce's insistence that it does not use foreign money for political activities.
However, I would like to ask a few clarifying questions regarding your views. When you say that our elections should not be bought by "foreign factors," do you mean all foreign factors? What if there was an international environmental lobbying group who supports one California candidate over another because one of the candidates is clearly more eco-friendly than the other? Would you not allow this either?
Also, if an international company or organization is willing to spend money to finance a campaign in California, doesn't this show that that entity somehow has a vested interest in Californian poltics? If an international organization has a branch in California, then shouldn't they be allowed to argue their opinions in California?
Again, these are just some clarifying questions that I wanted to ask.
Post a Comment