“Public Opinion Made to Order” 
While looking for something to watch on TV the other day, I came upon an anti-Obamacare commercial paid for by
Americans for Prosperity -the PAC underwritten by the Koch Brothers.
The Koch Brothers are certainly not altruists who are concerned about the healthcare services available to average Americans. What they are is very wealthy industrialists who have spent billions of dollars over the years to sway public opinion to elect anti-government, anti-tax, anti-social program conservative politicians who are more inclined to advance the interests of big-business .
My search for some quality TV programming eventually landed me on Turner Classic Movies (TCM). Mr. Smith goes to Washington was on. While I’ve seen this classic film half a dozen times already, I was happy to again watch this inspiring story about a naive-honest citizen discovering that most of the politicians in Washington are owned and the legislative agenda is set by unethical powerful people in the private sector who place profit ahead of humanity.
What was true in 1939 is still so true today. While the voters in our country still get to elect representatives to make our laws and set priorities, a day doesn’t go by when unscrupulous private sector interests aren’t using commercials, newspapers and ersatz news networks to influence how people vote. The Murdochs and Kochs of this world know all too well that if you can control the flow of information to the public you control the agenda of local, state and our national government. That, as one intelligent observer in the movie Mr. Smith Went to Washington observed, is called public opinion made to order.
Tent of Abraham 