Sheldon Whitehouse - Captured: The Corporate Infiltration of American Democracy

ALSO BY SHELDON WHITEHOUSE

On Virtues: Quotations and Insight to Live a Full, Honorable, and Truly American Life

2017 by Sheldon Whitehouse

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Published in the United States by The New Press, New York, 2017

Distributed by Perseus Distribution

ISBN 978-1-62097-208-3 (e-book)

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To my family. Please know how grateful I am to you for putting up with my choices, for standing by me through the ups and downs, and for always being there when I needed you.

In particular, youve helped me keep my head on straight with your irreverence and good humor about my foibles.

Such humility as I have is thanks to you.

I love you, and I am grateful.

S.W.

To my husband and my daughter: thank you.

M.W.S.

There are more instances of the abridgement of the freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments of those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations.

JAMES MADISON

Contents

THIS BOOK IS ROOTED IN MY LIFELONG EXPERIENCE in government and politics. Without that experience, thered be no book. More than anyone, I want to dedicate this book to my familyto Sandra and Molly and Alexanderand to acknowledge what they did to make this book possible.

A life in government and politics has its joys and it has its woes. The problem for families is that those joys and woes are not fairly distributed between the politician and his family. I got more of the joys; they got more of the woes. I got the feelings of accomplishment at things done well. I got the camaraderie of politics. I got the exposure to people I might not otherwise have known, and ideas I might not otherwise have considered. I got the attention. They didnt get as much of any of that.

Whether I would have made more money had I pursued a more lucrative career is an unknown. What is a known is that I didnt.

Another known is the time my work in government has required. There were many years of very long hours away from home. Often being home meant bringing work home. Sometimes there were surges of effort where I barely saw my family at all. At one point I was going to work so early and coming home so late that all I could do was kiss my little daughter while she was sleeping. I was in the press a lot at the time, and one evening when she saw me on the news, she asked my wife why I had gone away to the TV, and would I come back.

They have had to endure my defeats and failures, many of which were very public. They have had to console me and buck me up and keep a brave face through their own disappointment for me. They have had to endure harsh political criticisms of me. We all went without TV for a while because the political attack ads against me on the television were so unpleasant, and it wasnt worth explaining it to the kids. Thank goodness it was the time of the VCRwe watched lots of movies. They had to cope with the uncertainty and stress of campaigning, of press attention, of debates, and of election night. They showed amazing resilience: my son kept his close friendship with the son of a political opponent all the way through our demanding race, and they have remained close friends to this day. Im proud of him for that.

My family members have often lost the chance to make a clean first impression with people, bearing whatever impression their relation with me imposes. Some of their friends may not like my politics, and that can shadow their friendship. Some people may not want to be friends of theirs at all, just for that reason. And its not offset by the people who want to be their friends just because of my positionthose are never real friends.

My familys mistakes have been amplified, and their achievements have been diminished, as a result of my career. My wife is a published, Ivy Leagueeducated doctor of marine science, with a specialty in coastal biology; her appointment as an unpaid board member to our state coastal resources agency was announced by the local newspaper with the headline Wife of Aide Gets Job. Other staffers in that administration years ago have the right to this day to refer to Sandra as Wife of Aide; it was so unfair, it became a thing among us alla wry, New England way of bonding and standing with her.

I have been really stressed at times. Ive tried my best to be a good husband and father, but all that stress couldnt have helped. At one point, after a particularly strenuous ordeal, I went to my doctor for a checkup, and he gave me a surprising diagnosis. Evidently, when one is under a lot of stress, the digestive process can slow down. That produced the memorable diagnosis (which had to be a joyous opportunity for a doctor to deliver, speaking to a politician): Well, Sheldon, I can tell you that as a medical matter, you are officially F.O.S. I was not too stressed to figure out what that stood for. To those readers who may suspect this of me alreadywell, you have at least one medical diagnosis in your corner.

The upshot of all of this is that my family has put up with a lot. I expect most political and government families have to put up with a lot. Its not really their fault that they got dragged into this life. So reader, be kind, if you can, to the families.

DIANE WACHTELL APPROACHED ME ABOUT WRITING A BOOK, and that invitation launched the thought process about how disparate issues I was working on shared a common theme. I am grateful for her confidence and guidance, and glad that The New Press exists to make this kind of book happen. Melanie Wachtell Stinnett played an important role in this book. She ran down innumerable sources, edited choppy or turgid parts of the book, added additional research and text in various areas, kept me on schedule, patiently coped with my edits, re-edits, and re-re-edits, and organized reviews of drafts by other talented people who all helped make this a better book. My only other book was an assembly of quotations, so this was the first book I have written rather than just compiled. This was Melanies first effort as a co-author/editor/researcher. It was a pleasure to learn from each other.

S.W.

THIS BOOK WOULD NOT BE POSSIBLE WITHOUT THE dedicated efforts of The New Presss editors and staff, particularly Carl Bromley, Jed Bickman, and Maury Botton. We are grateful to the whole New Press team. We would also like to thank those who reviewed early drafts of the manuscript: Bill Novak, Trevor Potter, Steven Nightingale, Sabeel Rahman, and Tom Goldstein.

S.W. & M.W.S.

IN THE SENATE, I SEE EVERY DAY how power works in the political sphere. I see whos got it. I see who uses it. I see how they use it. I see the devices by which that power is applied. I see the schemes used to obscure whos pulling the strings. I see the smokescreens put up to distract people so they dont notice the string-pulling. This is my world; it is the ecosystem I inhabit as a United States senator.