A plutocracy is a form of government in which elected representatives derive their power from wealth or those with wealth. In the case of South Carolina State Government, plutocracy has unfortunately been the prevailing force that drives the daily activities of the South Carolina General Assembly and the Governor's mansion for decades and even longer. We see in the daily headlines how Corporate Power is replacing representative democracy at the federal, state, and local levels. Since the Citizens United decision by the U.S. Supreme Court we are seeing the flow of secret corporate money and its infiltration even to the timing, agenda, debate, and control of legislation at the state level. Corporate power has been riding the wave of Republican domination of state legislatures and Governorships in the 2010 election cycle.
South Carolina is unique in that the governor holds little power in comparison to other state governorships with the exception of the veto threat. With Nikki Haley, as the current governor, it might not be such a bad thing considering what Governors like Rick Scott of Florida and Scott Walker of Wisconsin have been pushing through with their Corporate backers.
If South Carolina got a taste of what she really wants to accomplish promoting the plutocratic agenda, I do finally believe the people of this state would rise up in large numbers and hold her accountable. We would no longer have 1.5 million eligible registered voters who sat at home in the 2010 election cycle.
Recently, the South Carolina State Senate in its own version of the $6 billion dollar state budget took the additional $210 million in unexpected tax collections and placed another $105 million of the money into public schools while reserving $105 million for a unemployment tax break for businesses. You would think this would be a reasonable attempt at dividing this revenue stream considering the draconian cuts by the Republican majority that has been made to public education and other critical state services over the last four or five legislative sessions. However, Nikki Haley, Spokeswoman for the Plutocracy, wasted no time saying she would veto any attempts by the State Senate to put more money into our public schools. Let it be repeated that: SHE WILL VETO ANY ATTEMPT TO PUT MORE MONEY INTO PUBLIC SCHOOLS! She said the additionally revenues should be reserved for further tax breaks or be returned to the people of South Carolina. She of course did not go into detail on who might receive those tax breaks or what part of South Carolina might get that back. We know of course what she meant. She would like to see her corporate donors rewarded for the hard work and humanitarian efforts of writing donation checks to her campaign fund. After all, she continues to use her catch all phrase that government needs to be run like a business. The people of South Carolina with all the media coverage are of course very well aware of Mrs. Haley's business skills. She was very skilled at running the family business into the ground and forgetting to submit the payroll taxes. It appears the SC State Senate was actually trying to make a sensible decision for once in placing more funding into the most important function of our state government which is providing a public education system. They even did it in a timely manner it seems because everyone knows the SC State Senate is as slow as molasses flowing out of the bottle on a January morning when it comes to moving legislation from either chamber.
However, Nikki Haley is more interested in playing the pivotal role of Corporate Power Broker while the public school children of South Carolina continue to suffer through over crowded classrooms and our young adults take out additional student loans to cover the highest tuition rates of public colleges and universities in the Southeast Region.
We have to endure an additional three years of Mrs. Haley as the spokeswoman and figurehead for Palmetto Plutocracy. Beyond that, perhaps we will retire her back to Lexington County. While the parents and school children may decry her veto threat, Ms. Nikki will continue to bow to the secret money that pours from the SC Club For Growth, South Carolinians For Responsible Government, SC Policy Council, CEO Round Table of SC, Palmetto Family Council, and of course to those enlightened Teapublicans who helped her deliver that 51.3% majority percentage in 2010. The school children of South Carolina now have a price tag for their education and can be considered a commodity because Nikki knows whats best from a business standpoint. The youngest of these can look forward to possibly attending a for profit educational center in the future where the quality of a history lesson will depend upon the value of the school stock currently trading on Wall Street or by chance the corporate trained instructor actually has a history degree. After all, Nikki thinks government should be run like a business. What she doesn't tell you is business already controls the government, and she is just the current de facto CEO promoting their agenda. So much for having representative democracy, the people will have to wait or demand that it be restored.
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