Corporate money slithers quietly back to feed hungry swamp creatures

A New York Times opinion piece describes the quiet, ongoing return of lobbyists and corporate cash into the coffers of Republicans who supported the 1/6 coup attempt. The swamp is refilling with sleazy, self-serving intentions backed by money. Pay-to-play politics, a/k/a/ legalized bribery, is coming back. The NYT writes:

The swamp is healing.

The early months of 2021 were rough for many members of Congress, as they confronted every politician’s worst nightmare: a major disruption to the usually reliable gusher of corporate campaign cash.

Following the Jan. 6 sacking of the U.S. Capitol by MAGA zealots high on Donald Trump’s lies about election fraud, a host of corporate PACs and industry groups announced reviews of their policies on political giving. From Bank of America to Disney, from Microsoft to Raytheon to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, many of the nation’s big donors hit the pause button. Some suspended all contributions to congressional races. Others drew up a more targeted “no-fly” list featuring members of the so-called Sedition Caucus, the 147 Republicans who voted on Jan. 6 to overturn the election results.

Further squelching the money flow, the coronavirus pandemic halted most in-person fund-raisers and other opportunities for lawmakers and favor seekers to hang out. Even if everyone puts on their best smiles — and pants — Zoom cocktail parties are a sad and sorry substitute for the usual parade of steak dinners, fishing trips, golf outings and other face-to-face schmooze fests. In the first quarter of 2021, corporate giving plummeted to individual members and campaign committees alike.

But as the election and pandemic traumas fade, corporate America is easing, quietly, back into the giving game. Lobbyists are suiting up. Fund-raising events are on the calendar. Wallets are reopening. It will take a while yet for the giving to return to its normal, obscene levels, but the trajectory is once more headed up — with the trend expected to accelerate in the coming months.

The editorial asserts that companies now think that the public outrage over the attack has subsided, making it safe to resume “currying favor” with Republicans, i.e., bribing, threatening, etc., without much shareholder and customer blowback. As the NYT writes: “After all, the Capitol was sacked more than five months ago. That’s an eternity in political time.” 

An analysis by Roll Call comments: “the top business and industry PACs contributing to the 147 G.O.P. lawmakers [who voted against certifying the election] were major defense contractors such as General Dynamics, as well as Duke Energy, American Crystal Sugar Company and PACs connected with the Associated Builders and Contractors and the National Association of Realtors.” 

Questions: Is it true that people are forgetting the horror of the 1/6 coup attempt? If so, is it now safe for quiet corporate money to quietly start flowing again to Republicans who voted to overturn the 2020 election? Do corporations care more about profit and power than democracy and elections?