The Swamp is a harrowing look at the way the Congress of the United states functions, however it is entertaining all the way through, and even pretty funny at points. It follows congressman Matt Gaetz through his first few years in office, and gives us a look into the day to day aspects that we had no clue came with being a congressman.
The Swamp (2020): Official Trailer | HBOwww.youtube.com
For example, you've probably heard of congressional committees, but are you aware that members of congress have to pay to get on the committees they want? Where do you think they get that money? Their own pockets? No. They make phone calls to lobbyists, and meet with lobbyists--- lobbyists who have a vested interest in getting them onto these chairs--- and the lobbyists purchase their seat on the committee. Think about that for a second, if you went to someone and asked for money in exchange for a position where you'd be making decisions, wouldn't that have an impact on your decision making process? Knowing you need their money to keep your job and position on that board, would you vote with your heart and the best interests of your constituents, or would you vote the way those funding your operation want you to vote?
Furthermore, there is a hierarchy system, with A level committees (such as the ways and means committee which appropriates government money and taxes) being the most expensive to get on and C level committees being the least expensive. Take a guess what level the ethics committee is? C. Meanwhile those with the most money to shell out, are the ones who get to decide on taxes and government spending. It's as though they aren't even trying to hide how little they care about what is right and wrong.
Another way money rules the daily lives of these government officials, is that those with the money to do so, will use it to threaten congressman. One thing that was reported is that the Koch Brothers, who own all sorts of industries, have made threats in the past against republicans, threatening any republican who acknowledges climate change with a primary challenger(although I cannot find a source on this right now, it was mentioned in the documentary), meaning if they choose to acknowledge this developing crisis, they are threatened to be taken out of office by having an opponent emerge against them with the funds to defeat them.
The craziest and most disgusting thing that is touched upon is that in order to be known, and generate money, one needs to be able to go on TV and generate some attention, some controversy. This is easily done by demonizing the other side and turning them into an enemy, which only divides the country more and more. It is even bluntly stated in the documentary that, "Politics of hate is the most successful money making campaign we have". We have a system that thrives off division and turning the country against each other---- our country that was founded on the idea that people of differing beliefs and ideologies can come and together and work towards what's best for the country. Instead, we have a system which just fuels the flames of "hating the other side".
The entire film is put into a much larger context when you take a step back and realize that you have been following less than a handful of congressmen, and that there are 500+ variations of the same daily routine of making policy decisions, worrying about funding their campaign and staying in office, and being a person.
The reality is that instead of looking at a simple "everyone in my party good. everyone in other party bad." It's really a more nuanced situation, where "everyone who perpetuates this broken system is bad. those trying to break away from it and not enable it are good, even if I disagree with them". What we have now is a system that the founding fathers would have viewed as a nightmare scenario.
Rather than turning against each other, we should be uniting and working together, perhaps against those ruining this system that was intended to provide us freedom of choice in how we are governed.
How exactly is any of this good for democracy? Do we really have a country where the people get to have a say in how it is run, or are people like Bernie Sander's right when they say we have an oligarchy that only works for the rich? How much of our opinions are actually ours and not just opinions funneled at us because some would become a little bit richer as a result of us adopting those beliefs? Why do we continue to have a divisive two-party system, when other countries have systems that allow for multiple parties and viewpoints to be represented?
There aren't enough words to describe how disgusting this is, both in how it works, and in how transparent they are about what it is, and the fact that it sits right in front of us. Please don't take my words as absolute fact, take the two hours to watch it and form your own opinion. If you'd like to do a little research into where a candidates money is coming from, you can use a website like opensecrets.org to view a candidates campaign contributions, see where exactly they are getting their money from, and just track the overall influence of money in politics.
