“The Internal Revenue Service has an approval rating of 40% and we are at 9%. BP at the height of the oil spill was at 16%. More people support the United States becoming communist... at 11% than approve of the job we are doing! … I guess we can take some comfort that Fidel Castro is at 5%.” Senator Michael Bennet on the floor of the Senate, November 2011.
For the last twenty years, I have talked with people who are thinking about running for political office. I asked all of them if they were planning to accept money from special interest groups. In my mind that was the key. This special interest purchase of influence with campaign dollars is the biggest problem facing our American democracy.
This purchase is wicked for two reasons.
First, these transactions result in policies that aren’t the best for the people. And since we are talking about a system that is supposed to be democratic in nature, this is a tragic flaw. Yet perhaps even more importantly, the purchase brings dishonesty into the system. Candidates who accept these contributions are forced to pretend that big financial interests have no special influence over the process, when for the vast majority of Americans saying that these interests do not get something for their money is a patent absurdity. The dishonesty causes cynicism and a form of despair among those who only want the majority’s will to prevail.
From Ken Gordon. More here....
http://www.cleanslatenow.org/false_reality?utm_campaign=falserealitysup&utm_medium=email&utm_source=cleanslatenow
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