Tuesday, October 03, 2006

Will Foley seal the deal for the Dems?

Good editorial in the NYT this morning, remarking on how quickly the GOP slipped into crass opportunism and "turned itself into the partner of every special-interest lobbyist with a checkbook." The choice cuts:
History suggests that once a political party achieves sweeping power, it will only be a matter of time before the power becomes the entire point. Policy, ideology, ethics all gradually fall away, replaced by a political machine that exists to win elections and dispense the goodies that come as a result...

The good news is that American democracy, so flawed in many ways, is often fairly efficient at punishing parties that become addicted to self-perpetuation. This November may not force Congress to come up with a plan for Iraq, or even immigration. But if it reminds elected officials that there’s a punishment waiting for those who fall in love with their own sense of entitlement, it will have done its job.
Of course that assumes that the vote will be counted fairly and not stolen again by mysterious quirks in electronic voting machine tallies. One can only hope the electorate will not complacently accept suspect and apparently fraudulent results this time around, as simply politics as usual.
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2 Comments:

Blogger Kathy said...

The bad news is that lobbying has become so pervasive on both sides of the aisle that it may not matter who wins.

From Bill Moyers: Once upon a time the House of Representatives was known as "the people's house." No more. It belongs to K Street now. That's the address of the lobbyists who swarm all over Capitol Hill. There are 65 lobbyists for every member of Congress. They spend $200 million per month wining, dining and seducing federal officials. Per month!

His solution: The only way to counter the power of organized money is with organized and outraged people. Believe me, what members of Congress fear most is a grassroots movement that demands clean elections and an end to the buying and selling of influence—or else! If we leave it to the powers that be to clean up the mess that greed and chicanery have given us, we will wake up one day with a real Frankenstein of a system—a monster worse than the one created by Abramoff, DeLay and their cronies. By then it will be too late to save Lincoln's hope for "government of, by, and for the people."

6:00:00 PM  
Blogger Libby Spencer said...

Killer link. Thanks Kathy. I agree it's a problem on both sides of the aisle. The question becomes what to do about it. Much as I'd like to punish them all this time around, I think it's really important to get the GOP out of control of Congress this time around but in 08, I say dump every one of the incumbents.

7:24:00 PM  

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