“What America now faces, if we do not change the fundamental structures of the relationship of money to legislative power, is neither mob rule nor democracy, but oligarchy.”
So writes Fordham University Associate Professor of Law Zephyr Teachout in her Introduction to Corruption in America: From Benjamin Franklin’s Snuff Box to Citizens United. We’ll publish the book this September, by which point we’ll all likely be a lot more familiar with Teachout: in one of the more bold instances of academics turning from theory to praxis, she’s mounting a primary challenge to Democratic New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, charging the incumbent with complicity in a broken system.
Teachout, who’s joined on the ticket by Columbia Law School professor and “father of net neutrality” Tim Wu, has made safeguarding democracy from the “corrupting threat of concentrated wealth” the first pillar of her platform. She discussed that and more with MSNBC’s The Cycle last week:
[apologies for the advertisement preceding the segment]
