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2/19/2010
Lohman: Not partisanship – it’s political corruption
Ιt is not “partisanship” when a 60-vote Democratic senate can’t pass a bill; it is political corruption. The health insurance industry could only have blocked meaningful reform if it bought off both political parties, so it did what was necessary. $46 million in campaign contributions split equally between R’s and D’s.
Our system of election funding clearly must change, and perhaps things have finally gotten bad enough that even the conservatives see the need.
Congressmen who have resigned have done this country a terrible disservice by simply claiming that “Washington is broken.” It is, more accurately, corrupt as hell and they should say so. But some have hopes for higher office and others wish to become highly paid lobbyists, and they want not to alert the public to the real problem. You and I might call it bribery, but it’s simply political cash.
Michael Collins had it right when he wrote The Money Party, The Essence of our Political Troubles. No, we can’t afford to fix state or local problems or pay police and fire personnel because our economy is being shifted to the leaders of the Money Party. That’s the special interests that (a) fund the elections and thus have politicians locked up, and (b) don’t have to run for election themselves if they can control the two parties with cash.
But the Pols have gone too far and are now poised to lose half of their base to the extremes. The Tea Partiers on one end and disaffected Progressives on the other will (hopefully) form two new parties.
Yes, it will make it more difficult to govern, and under the current system of election funding the special interests will have to fund four parties rather than just two. And the new politicians? They’ll likely start getting the checks their predecessor got.
The only fix is public funding of campaigns, so all candidates can opt for public funds and voters can opt for clean candidates.
Now that’s what you call freedom of speech!
Jack Lohman is a retired business owner who blogs via “Moneyed Politicians” and authors a regular e-newsletter focused on campaign and health care reform. His views, though thought-provoking and interesting, do not reflect the views of FoxPolitics.net.
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