A MOCKERY OF DEMOCRACY

The capitalist media is fond of depicting the democratic political systems that exist in Britain and the USA as perfect examples of fairness and well- balanced pieces of legislation where everyone is equal as far as the law is concerned, but this is shown to be a complete charade when we consider the following example. David and Charles Koch are billionaires, in fact each is reckoned to be worth $22 billion. "Both have a 42% stake, (in Koch Industries) which makes chief executive Charles (now 75) and vice-president David (71) the joint 18th richest people in the world. Charles is co-founder of the libertarian think-tank the Cato Institute, while David founded the conservative non-profit group America for Prosperity and has spent $45m bankrolling rightwing politicians." (Observer, 15 May) The brothers fund such organisations as the America for prosperity which is linked to the Tea Party and have spent $20m in 2008 and $20.5m from 2009 to 2010 lobbying against legislation on global warming and other right wing targets. Yes, like you they have only one vote each but unlike you they can spend millions lobbying for legislation. A strange sort of democracy. RD