Forget gay marriage. America's real problem is in its boardrooms.
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Robert Reich Guest blogger
The 2012 election should be about what鈥檚 going on in America鈥檚 boardrooms, but Republicans would rather it be about America鈥檚 bedrooms.
Mitt Romney says he鈥檚 against same-sex marriage; President Obama just announced his support. North Carolina voters have approved a Republican-proposed amendment to the state constitution banning same-sex marriage. Minnesota voters will be considering a similar amendment in November. Republicans in Maryland and Washington State are seeking to overturn legislative approval of same-sex marriage there.
Meanwhile, Republicans have introduced over four hundred bills in state legislatures aimed at limiting womens鈥� reproductive rights 鈥� banning abortions, requiring women seeking abortions to have invasive ultra-sound tests beforehand, and limiting the use of contraceptives.
The Republican bedroom crowd doesn鈥檛 want to talk about the nation鈥檚 boardrooms because that鈥檚 where most of their campaign money comes from. And their candidate for president has made a fortune playing board rooms like checkers.
Yet America鈥檚 real problems have nothing to do with what we do in our bedrooms and everything to do with what top executives do in their boardrooms and executive suites.
We鈥檙e not in trouble because gays want to marry or women want to have some control over when they have babies. We鈥檙e in trouble because CEOs are collecting exorbitant pay while slicing the pay of average workers, because the titans of Wall Street demand short-term results over long-term jobs, and because of a boardroom culture that tolerates financial conflicts of interest, insider trading, and the outright bribery of public officials through unlimited campaign 鈥渄onations.鈥�
Our crisis has nothing to do with private morality. It鈥檚 a crisis of public morality 鈥� of abuses of public trust that undermine the integrity of our economy and democracy and have led millions of Americans to conclude the game is rigged.
What鈥檚 truly immoral is not what adults choose to do with other consenting adults. It鈥檚 what those with great power have chosen to do to the rest of us.
It is immoral that top executives are richly rewarded no matter how badly they screw up while most Americans are screwed no matter how hard they work.
Regressive Republicans have no problem intruding on the most personal and most intimate decisions any of us makes while railing against government intrusions on big business.
They don鈥檛 hesitate to hurl the epithets 鈥渟hameful,鈥� 鈥渄isgraceful,鈥� and 鈥渃ontemptible鈥� at private moral decisions they disagree with, while staying stone silent in the face of the most contemptible violations of public trust at the highest reaches of the economy.
We must protect and advance private rights of individuals over intimate bedroom decisions. We must also stop the abuses of economic power and privilege that are characterizing so many decisions in the nation鈥檚 boardrooms and executive suites.
