Captured: The Corporate Infiltration of American Democracy

by Sheldon Whitehouse, J Hamilton-Taylor (With)

Overview

A U.S. senator, leading the fight against money in politics, chronicles the long shadow corporate power has cast over our democracy

In Captured, U.S. Senator and former federal prosecutor Sheldon Whitehouse offers an eye-opening take on what corporate influence looks like today from the Senate Floor, adding a first-hand perspective to Jane Mayer’s Dark Money.

Americans know something is wrong in their government. Senator Whitehouse combines history, legal scholarship, and personal experiences to provide the first hands-on, comprehensive explanation of what's gone wrong, exposing multiple avenues through which our government has been infiltrated and disabled by corporate powers. Captured reveals an original oversight by the Founders, and shows how and why corporate power has exploited that vulnerability: to strike fear in elected representatives who don’t “get right” by threatening million-dollar "dark money" election attacks (a threat more effective and less expensive than the actual attack); to stack the judiciary—even the Supreme Court—in "business-friendly" ways; to "capture” the administrative agencies meant to regulate corporate behavior; to undermine the civil jury, the Constitution's last bastion for ordinary citizens; and to create a corporate "alternate reality" on public health and safety issues like climate change.

Captured shows that in this centuries-long struggle between corporate power and individual liberty, we can and must take our American government back into our own hands.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781620972083
Publisher:	New Press, The
Publication date:	02/21/2017
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	272
File size:	922 KB

About the Author

Sheldon Whitehouse represents Rhode Island in the U.S. Senate. He has served as his state’s United States Attorney and as the state Attorney General, as well as its top business regulator. Sheldon worked for years as a young staff lawyer in the Attorney General’s office. He has been a successful and unsuccessful political candidate, held several senior staff positions for a governor, run local referendum races, and been a longtime environmental advocate. He has led government reforms, most significantly an overhaul of the state workers compensation system, a “separation of powers” constitutional reform, and an opening of state pension records. He has practiced law, tried cases to a jury, argued appeals (including in the United States Supreme Court), and litigated in federal and state administrative agencies. Sheldon grew up in a Foreign Service family and is author of Captured (The New Press). He lives in Newport with his wife, a marine scientist, and his grown children when they visit.

Melanie Wachtell Stinnett is a Boston-based writer and former Director of Policy and Communications at the Tobin Project. She has previously published on regulatory policy and Supreme Court litigation trends and is the co-author (with Sheldon Whitehouse) of Captured: The Corporate Infiltration of American Democracy (The New Press).

Table of Contents

Author's Note xiii

Acknowledgments xv

Introduction xvii

Chapter 1 The Constitution's Blind Spot 1

Chapter 2 The Growth of Corporate Power 11

Chapter 3 Where We Are Now 24

Chapter 4 What the Corporate Political Machine Wants: Four Short Case Studies 48

Chapter 5 The Powell Memo and the Corporate Strategy 63

Chapter 6 Capture of the Court 77

Chapter 7 Capture of Elections: Citizens United 93

Chapter 8 Capture of Regulatory Agencies 114

Chapter 9 Capture of the Civil Jury 133

Chapter 10 The Denial Machine 150

Chapter 11 Climate Change and the "Flies of Summer" 169

Chapter 12 America's Lamp in Peril 186

Postscript 191

Notes 205

Index 241

Editorial Reviews

Praise for Senator Sheldon Whitehouse:
"Sheldon Whitehouse is one of the most respected and thoughtful progressives in the Senate. His energy and enthusiasm make him a powerful voice in defending our American democracy against the relentless, pervasive—and often hidden—power of corporate special interests."
—Senator Elizabeth Warren

“An extraordinarily intelligent and wide-ranging critique of the current state of our political and economic affairs. This book reminds me distinctly of the great muckraking texts of the progressive era—texts that really shook up the status quo in the American polity and economy. And I truly believe that this book has the potential to be one of those much needed historic calls-to-action…Bravo!”
—William Novak, Charles F. and Edith J. Clyne Professor of Law, University of Michigan Law School

“For climate activists—or really anyone who thinks climate change is a problem—there’s a lot to love about Senator Sheldon Whitehouse.”
—Think Progress

"An elected official who speaks the truth.”
— Janet Larsen, Earth Policy Institute

From the Publisher

2016-12-07
A United States senator argues that "there is virtually no element of the political landscape into which corporate influence has not intruded." Whitehouse is in a similar position to Bernie Sanders before the last primary campaign: a little-known Democratic senator from a small northeastern state (in this case, Rhode Island) sounding the alarm about the pervasive influence of corporate dollars on American politics. Since his co-author, Stinnett, is also more of a policy specialist than a writer who can humanize these issues, the book reads more like a legal brief or a series of position papers. Yet they are persuasive, particularly for Democrats of a populist bent. Whitehouse continually stresses that corporate money "is usually the strongest political force arrayed in any part of [the political] landscape." He shows how the insidious influence of money extends from PACs to lobbyists to the Supreme Court and how Republicans in particular have succumbed to the lure of filthy corporate lucre. Since the book was well into the publication cycle before the surprising triumph of Donald Trump, skeptics might wonder how Trump prevailed over the likes of Jeb Bush (who benefitted heavily from corporate backing and PAC support) and then Hillary Clinton (who did as well). The author twists himself into a pretzel as he attempts to show how the Supreme Court's upholding of the Affordable Care Act actually advanced a corporate conservative agenda. Yet it's hard to dispute so many of these assertions—e.g., how "the right pursues eliminating the estate tax, which only about 0.2 percent of the very wealthiest Americans—those whose estates are worth more than $5.45 million—will ever have to pay"; how corporation funding has fought tobacco warnings and climate change alike with pseudo-science and public relations lies; or that "corporate money is calling the tune in Congress." The book reads more like a Democrat's attack on Republicans, but many of the ills it illuminates are bipartisan.

Kirkus Reviews