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Okay, here I am, five years and a thousand DU posts later. I've kept the same dumb signature line tacked to the bottom of every post, and I'm afraid I haven't always lived up to it. I've interjected my share of nonsense into the conversation around here.
But that signature line has also been a reminder to me to shut up, listen, and learn. I've lurked almost daily these five years, and I've absorbed a hell of a lot of information. And this, above all, is what I've learned:
It's the money, stupid.
It's the money.
It's not a lack of "balls" or "spine" that causes politicians to vote against the interests of the people who elected them. It's not a sense of "moderation" that causes them to disappoint you or betray you time after time.
It's the money.
Call 'em DINOs, RINOs, Blue Dogs - call 'em what you will, but what they really are is people trying to hold on to their jobs, just as you and I try to hold on to ours. And what they have to do in order to keep their jobs is to whore themselves out for great big gobs of corporate cash. If they're too proud, too moral, or too principled to do that, then tell 'em Sayonara - because their opponent in the next election will gladly accept that filthy lucre, and bury them in the mudslide of advertising it will buy.
Oh sure, there are exceptions - you got your Dennis Kuciniches, your Bernie Sanderses, your Paul Wellstones. But most of 'em, to a greater or lesser degree, have to kiss that corporate ring when the lobbyists come a-calling, or else start checking the classifieds.
That's the way it is here on our side of the aisle. Over on the other side, it's the same - only worse.
Historically, a culture of corruption like this can be very resistant to change. But until and unless it does change, the causes most dear to you are going to be on the slow track, or more likely just side-tracked completely.
Peace? Justice? The rights of women, racial minorities, gays? The welfare of children? The preservation of the earth? Or maybe just the ability of a plain ol' workin' Joe or Jane to live a decent and dignified life? No matter what matters to you, it has to take a back seat to the demands of corporate lobbyists. And mostly what they're demanding is that our politicians keep finding newer and better ways to divert even more of our tax dollars to the interests the lobbyists represent.
This is the central front in the war on - well, really, the war on us. If we don't win this battle, then nothing else can be won. And surprisingly, it's entirely within our power to win. We don't have to change any laws. We don't have to change a system. We only have to change ourselves.
What if we voters, en masse, just stopped buying their bullshit? What if we out-and out rejected every slick ad underwritten by corporate donors, every slime attack financed by some bogus front group, every campaign press release disguised as a "news story" and trotted out by the corporate media?
What if each of us just started with ourselves, and made up our minds to reject politicians who won't reject corporate cash, whenever and wherever we can afford to? What if we convinced our friends to do the same, and they convinced their friends, and the attitude spread until the taint of corporate patronage actually became a political liability instead of an advantage?
I know this will probably not come to pass. But the hell of it is, there's just no reason it can't, or shouldn't, or couldn't.
The power to take back our nation rests entirely with us. And ultimately, the blame for failing to take it back also rests with us.
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