The Republicans took the strategy of' 'No' to the extreme, to the point that when Democrats applied Republican ideas to legislation they would still vote against it and decry it. A large number of Republican Senators have decried the stimulus and then are indignant when they are caught trying to direct stimulus funds into their states. Their campaign strategy is to say no to everything and hope we don't notice. Only problem to their strategy is that it was hijacked by the Tea Party. While some in the tea party have sensible ideas for government, most of the movement is a fake-grassroots, top-down guerrilla campaign theater intent on stirring up the far right in this country. Well, they have had some success and we see it in the likes of Christine O'Donnell, Sharon Angle, Ken Buck, and Rand Paul. These far-right candidates have pushed moderate Republicans out or to the right. Even longtime politicians who could work across the aisle like John McCain have moved far to the right on many positions.
The Democrats dug in after the 2008 election and passed significant reforms despite being hamstrung by the GOP. This country would be significantly better off right now, had Democrats received some support from Republicans for the work of the people. This campaign season many Democrats have been trying to distance themselves from the work they have done. They are telling us what they think we want to hear. The other problem with the Democrats, is that they are just as willing as Republicans to get all a-titter about the broken system, but just as unwilling as Republicans to fix it. The reason, special interest money has become entrenched in our government's center of power.
This year, in a case known as Citizens United, the Supreme Court ruled that corporations could donate as much money as they liked to politicians and shady attack groups, who are behind nearly all of the attack campaign ads running this season. Because of this ruling, these groups have no accountability for what they say or do to promote their agenda of buying power in this country. There is a distinct possibility that there is foreign money enter this election. This is already the most expensive mid-term election in the history of this country, with several groups still amping up spending over this last week of the campaign. Many of these ads are outright lies and while the candidates have nothing to do with these ads, they must defend themselves from outright lies and not know who is behind it. This is a ridiculous way to hire representatives to do the peoples work.
We know now that the oil, coal, and natural gas industries were essentially running the Department of the Interior (DOI). They had no accountability for things like the Deepwater Horizon oil spill this summer, because they had their people inside at Interior and in the Minerals Management Service (MMS), a division of DOI that is responsible for managing this country's vast mineral and fossil fuel resources. It is likely that the MMS under-collected royalties that were owed to the American people by the likes of Exxon, Shell, and BP. The fossil fuel industrial complex has been infiltrating government for decades to avoid regulation and enhance profits. This relationship became cemented when Vice President Dick Cheney started holding top secret energy policy meetings at the White House for his and King George's buddies in the oil and coal industries. We have seen this year how the coal industry has mine safety officials in their pockets. The Big Branch tragedy in West Virginia had numerous previous safety violations, but was allowed to operate business as usual and 29 miners were killed. This is but a small part of the picture. The American People are being robbed of our mineral and fuel resources. These companies make obscene profits while we continue to go into debt.
We see the Republicans bowing to their Wall Street masters, when it came to financial reform. We see the Democrats cave so they can get anything passed and consequently there are so many loopholes that each side will be happy for years to come. All this while the American people are suffering. Unemployment is still high. The pundits and politicians keep telling us that the economy is getting better, but folks are still losing their jobs and homes. We bailed out the "too big to fail" banks, while they continued to pay huge bonuses and salaries. The government bailed out our auto makers and they are on the road to recovery. These were necessary actions, but they were only necessary because of the mismanagement of regulation of these corporate entities by government officials. Bank of America, Chase, and others continue to be in the news for ongoing scandals related to fraudulent mortgages and fraudulent foreclosures.
When it came to the fiery healthcare debate in this country the Republicans, financed by the Health Insurance Industry, kicked and screamed the entire way. They are still filling the echo chamber with shouts of, "repeal the health care reform." All of the Republicans and some of the Democrats have sold out their sworn oath to serve the people of this nation. They instead serve the corporate funding masters who want only to enhance profits at all costs. Instead of providing better quality care at a better price the insurance companies and their Republican friends in Congress want to deny folks coverage and as many benefits as possible so they can enhance the bottom line as much as possible. The insurance companies make their obscene profits by providing quantity and not so much quality.
Our education system has dropped to 25th in the world and is continuing to fall as we fail to innovate our schools for the 21st century. Our roads are crumbling. Our energy transmission grid is antiquated and in need of nearly complete renewal. Presidents have been calling for a comprehensive energy policy for decades. Yet we still do not have one. We are still embroiled in the Middle East because we need their oil. The best thing would be to bring our troops home, rest them, and keep them well-trained and ready for conflict. We are not ready to eliminate conflict, but we must eliminate unnecessary war for unnecessary resources. We still have the best tactical missile program in the world. Bring our troops home and then play Whack-A-Mole Al-Qaeda with Tomahawk cruise missiles and drones. We have a border problem to our south and an antiquated immigration policy that both sides seem to refuse to fix. Both sides claim the other does nothing about immigration and then, when in power, does nothing about reform. The minority party can hold the congress hostage with the filibuster which requires a super-majority of the Senate to get anything done. This is unacceptable. Any senator can place a secret hold on a nominee or other piece of legislation simply because the sky is blue. This is unacceptable. Fact is, Congress is broken.
We can fix this. First we must vote. Second we must begin to call and write our representatives and let them know what we expect of them. Probably the most significant issue that needs to be addressed is campaign finance reform. If the corporations are so eager to fund our elections then let us tax them the amount equal to what they are currently contributing and put it into the public election fund. All political candidates get the same amount of money for their campaigns from this fund. No third party groups or corporations may spend on any election. We must also remove the corruption of lobbyist for special interest. They spend money in Congress like there is no tomorrow. They buy and sell influence. Often the door between government positions and lobbying jobs is revolving. When will Congress pass a law that will limit gifts and payments to our elected officials? The answer is never, unless we make them. It might be time to discuss strict term limits and enforce them for our elected officials. Our officials must also reform the rules of Congress so as to disallow the minority to hold the whole of Congress hostage at whim. Secret holds and the filibuster must be reformed and discouraged.
There is one week until the mid-term election of 2010 comes to a close. Please take the time to vote. I ask everyone to use reason and vote for the most progressive candidates. Google the names of all of the candidates and do a thorough search. Put the BS filter on and find out what each candidate truly stands for. Check opensecrets.org to see where their money comes from, and then vote with your conscience. As a nation of free people, our biggest enemy to freedom is apathy. Vote November 2, 2010 We may still yet hold off the developing plutocracy.
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