Governing Under The Influence
By Layla Amarir
The New Hampshire Primary Student Convention held breakout sessions on various subjects, an one of these was titled Profit Driven Policies and People Pushing Back. This session was led by a group called Governing Under the Influence (GUI). The group discussed the amount of influence large corporations have on the government. During this session GUI presented on some issues they focus on; the power the corporations have on government, and quotas on prisons that benefit private interests.
The session started off with a game of “Brother May I” which is a political spin off of the game “Mother May I”. In the game five members of the audience volunteered to play, and each person was given a character description; three people were large corporations, one was a doctor, and the other a student. The object of the game was to take a step forward when the facilitator, “Big Brother”, said something that applies to you. The questions involved how each person or corporation participated in elections or government. When the game ended the clear winners (those who reached Big Brother first) were the three people who were acting as corporations. This game showed how much influence large corporations have on government because they have the money to spend on lobbyists, and can make maximum campaign contributions. The doctor and student were left in the dust since these types of people do not usually have the funds or power to have any significant sway on the government. This game helped shift the discussion to the “revolving door” and lobbyists and their part in the influence large corporations have on the government. These large corporations such as Lockheed Martin, are able to hire lobbyists who have worked in government agencies that regulated interests, and then have them work for business or interest groups with the same policy concerns. These types of lobbyist have huge influence on the government because they know how to win the support of whomever because they once worked there. The speakers of GUI insinuated that with the use of all these tools large corporations basically control the government.
Another key point brought up during the Profit driven policies and people pushing back session was the unjust issue of quotas on immigrants in prison. Private companies profit from a federal policy requiring quotas of the detention of over 34,000 immigrants every day. This is a problem in America that does not get much attention. The speakers mentioned that candidates also do not have much knowledge about this problem in America. When members of the GUI had the chance to meet and speak with candidates such as Hillary and Jeb Bush they had the opportunity to ask about this issue and both candidates did not know about the problem. Later on both Clinton and Bush came out saying that having quotas in prison was backwards, unjust, and should be changed. Other candidates such as Kasich came out saying that quotas should not drive detention policy.
To conclude, the GUI taught me that corporations contribute more than money to campaigns. They buy power and access in order to have the government on their side; giving them more freedom to do whatever they please. I also learned about the problem with privately funded prisons and that some have problematic detention quotas for immigrant prisoners.