Full Show: Facing Down Corporate Election Greed

November 7, 2014

http://billmoyers.com/episode/full-show-facing-corporate-greed/

In the midst of the midterm elections and the obsession with which party would control the US Senate, there were races at the local and state level with deeper implications for the future of the country.

In the small city of Richmond, California, a slate of progressive candidates faced off against a challenge from pro-business candidates backed to the tune of more than million by the energy giant Chevron. For years, Chevron has treated Richmond like a company town and its large refinery there has been a constant source of health and safety concerns.

Since 2007, Mayor Gayle McLaughlin, a Green Party leader, and her allies on the city council have faced down not only Chevron but other corporate interests like the real estate and financial industries as well. This year, Chevron fought back with an expensive barrage of negative campaign media. But on Election Day, the progressive slate triumphed, despite the roughly 0 per vote Chevron spent.

Democrats refused to move on vital issues like cancelling the Keystone XL, rejecting the TTIP and TISA, reducing working hours, closing tax havens, punishing the financial chemists and normalizing Orwellian language and policy in attacking the poor and not poverty and endless war (see Jon Stewart on www.dailyshow.com).

www.alternativetrademandate.org could lead us to a future of generalized security and a welcoming state.