Ravenpro2448

Money in politics and its excuse

Since Bernie Sanders has come on the scene as a presidential candidate the issue of money in politics has been pushed to the forefront. While the problem has been ongoing in our system for decades, this campaign and protests like democracy spring are highlighting it and asking for a fix to the broken system. Citizens united may well have been the death nail for a fair and balanced representation of all of us over the corporate interests that can donate millions of dollars to a candidate or political party to sway their opinion or policy.

Bernie had a choice when he decided to run, start a super pac to fund his campaign or rely on donations from everyday Americans. He chose the latter. Hillary and all the republican candidates on the other hand chose to accept money from corporate donors and super pacs. Hillary’s claim and defense for this is that President Obama did the same.  And claims that there is no evidence she has ever changed her policy in response to her donors.

In my opinion, I believe the “he did it so why can’t I? “excuse is childish and something I would expect from a third grader. Going with that excuse does nothing to change the corrupt system. And if you read President Obama’s book “The audacity of hope” you see he realizes the issue with this system and the actual influence it can have on even the strongest politician.

 “Few lobbyists proffer an explicit quid pro quo to elected officials. Their influence comes from having more access than the average voter, having better information, and more staying power when it comes to promoting an obscure provision in the tax code that means billions for their clients.

For most politicians, money is not about maintaining status and power. It is about scaring off challengers and fighting off the fear. Money cannot guarantee a victory, but without money, you are pretty much guaranteed to lose.

When I decided to run for the Senate, I found myself spending time with people of means. As a rule, they were smart, interesting people, expecting nothing more than a hearing of their opinions in exchange for their checks. But they reflected, almost uniformly, the perspectives of their class.

I became more like the wealthy donors I met, in the sense that I spent more time above the fray, outside the world of hardship of the people that I had entered public life to serve.”

 Source: The Audacity of Hope, by Barack Obama, p.109-115 Oct 1, 2006

As you can see from this quote, even Barack Obama admits that you don’t necessarily change a policy in direct correlation to the money donated to you, your policy changes over time because of the company you keep. Hillary you didn’t flip on an issue after a donation, well accept for the bankruptcy bill you lobbied against as first lady then lobbied for and passed after elected to congress that benefitted wall street banks, you changed what you are willing to do for us the common folks because you spend time with the 1% instead of the majority of us here in the 99%. But then again after seeing your tax returns you are in a percentage the rest of us can only dream to be in.