Institutions failing the people

In today's NYT, Marc Bittman shouts out that the Supreme Court is failing to protect the rights of individuals without the clout of millions of dollars.  He of course, is writing in his capacity of food gadfly, but the point he makes crosses all lines in our society.   He is critical of the latest food bill.  The large food corporations are in line for most of the government subsidies contained in the bill, while organic proponents and local food advocates are allotted a pittance.  This is understandable when the relative resources these adversaries can bring to bear on our elected representatives.  As my mentor, Jerry Shulman was fond of saying, "Money talks, and B.S. walks".  Evidently, the fertilizing capacity of the agribusiness giants is much greater than that of organic growers.  Thanks to many recent rulings by the Robert's court, we are getting further and further from the one man, one vote ideal.   If that was ever an ideal in this country.  The founding fathers were the elite of their time, and they assumed their political descendants would likely be the same.   Despite the gains of women, people of color and the poor in the political arena, rich white men still hold most of the power.  While Bittman doesn't despair because of this situation, his prescription for remediation requires the bold and considered action of millions of ordinary people.  This is idealistic to say the least.  Most of us go to work each day and keep our heads down, trying to make it through to the end.   There is scant time to work for political change.  We need to do better.