Topic: Government Accountability
Corruption & Campaign Reform Our representatives in Washington have been co-opted by special interest money. Corporate graft and political corruption is overturning our system of representative government. What are we going to do about it?by John Layman
(centrist)
Friday, June 5, 2009
The political and economic system in America today is teetering on the edge of disaster. Confidence in the government is at an all time low. General consumer confidence is falling with the onset of massive job losses, rising prices and the intensifying crisis in American industry. President Obama is being given a grace period by the public at large- and that's OK for now. However, the deep rooted problems that are breaking us down are not being dealt with. We have ruptured at the seams and we are taking on water. Our ship is listing badly. It may list to the right for a bit and then a swell may push it over to list to the left- but the basic condition remains the same. The ship is sinking. The cause is corruption. The cracks in the hull are growing because the repairmen are jumping ship. They are hopping on their yachts and they are robbing the food and supply stores on their way out. OK, enough with the allegory. Let's get specific.
This crisis did not begin under the presidency of George Bush, although he sure helped it along. For example, did nothing about the oil companies taking advantage of the war in Iraq to price gouge America. That huge price increase in gasoline, diesel and heating oil did more to start the current recession/depression than anyone wants to admit. This crisis did not begin in the presidency of Bill Clinton, but he helped it along as well. He turned the health care trust over to the insurance companies and pushed through NAFTA and GATT. The resulting demolition of our manufacturing base has caused erosion in our economic foundation that is just beginning to surface. And now, our auto companies are about to close- so we can buy all our cars from Japan, Korea and China (along with our electronics and clothes and everything else). Our congress, cheered on first by ex-president G.W.Bush and now by President Obama have handed out bail-out money to the banks in numbers totaling many hundreds of billions without ensuring that any of it goes to hurting families who are losing their homes. Right now we are continuing in the great BIG GOVERNMENT tradition- give the foxes the chicken wire and hire them to build a fence around the chicken house. The banks and insurance companies (like AIG) are getting bailed out but the American people are not. They are getting the bill. Yet, our auto industry gets treated like scum when they ask for a measly 20 billion or so, to save millions of jobs. How can this be happening? Well, chicken house is the appropriate symbol. Americans have become chickens. We are afraid to speak out. We just want to get our daily ration of chicken feed. We see that there are foxes running freely all around us and we cackle and squawk a little. Why, if we keep on this way, by the time we make any serious noise there won't be enough of us left to matter. Middle class Americans are selling out their children's future just as our representatives in Washington are selling us out to the banks and corporations. Just sit back and watch a little more TV. As John Mayer wrote, in "Waiting On The World", "When they own the information they can bend it all they want, that's why we're waiting, waiting for the world to change". John, I love your music but we can't wait. We need a wave of activism by average Americans who have had enough. The majority stockholders in these financial institutions (banks and insurance companies) and corporate conglomerates are plying our congressmen and our political parties with a flow of cash and they are too weak to resist. The reason we used to have a spirited debate in this country about campaign reform is because big business brings big money to big politics and the result is corruption and the loss of honest representative government.
The other day I was watching the 1600, a political analysis show, and I watched as a Democratic Party spokesman and a Republican Party spokesman hammered on each other for awhile. I can say it appeared to me that neither of them cares much about fixing this country. They don't want to right the ship and close the gaps nearly as much as they want control. They would rather go down in control than drop the rhetoric and begin a serious dialogue. That is politics as usual in America today. Hiding behind the debate both parties eat lunch together and do deals that line their pockets and support the policies of the super wealthy. After the party spokesmen were done an American actor came on the show and said something brilliant. He suggested that if we were to fund elections in a way that set our politicians free from the financial chains of their sponsors, we would not have to worry about whether they were voting in our interests or the interests of their contributors. He proposed that maybe we would be dealing more with the question of competent leadership and less the issue of corrupt leadership. He even suggested that maybe an average American could get elected on the strength of vision, without having to sell-out to Big Money. The moderator of the show was both pleasant and condescending to Mr. Sam Waterston- an American representing a good idea. As a matter of fact, it was more than a good idea. It is A FUNDAMENTAL NECCESSITY to any plan to fix right this great ship AMERICA and put up a fence around the barnyard that will keep the foxes out. If we do not get campaign reform in this country- NOTHING WILL CHANGE. A descent into bankruptcy awaits the whole nation. These things that are happening are not random accidents of the economy. There is too much corruption going on. Our laws are being progressively weakened to allow the pillaging of the national trust. The President of the United States can't do too much really. Congress in the real chameleon. Every election year they start talking as if they cared about Americans other than themselves. They pick up the populist rhetoric that they use to sell themselves as one of us. The rest of the year they are a part of the symbiotic parasite that is sucking the life out of the Great Middle to enrich the chosen few. That composite creature out of a horror show, that anti-American/pro-globalist carpetbagger. Hey chickens- some of us need to become eagles. What has happened to the land of the free and the home of the brave? Are we going to roll over for this? There is still time to right the ship. Call your congressional representatives. Demand campaign reform. Support the Fair Elections Now Act. Raise a voter's rebellion against incumbents. Don't worry, it won't get worse if you throw them out- they are selling you out now. This really isn't about who the President is. The Congress passes laws and appropriates money and decides who gets to rip us off. Our President can only help us if he will apply the goad of the bully pulpit to the dogs that are licking up our blood- as yet he doesn't seem so inclined. That's the LAYMAN'S VIEW and Hey- it ain't rocket science.
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