Website review: A Culture of Corruption
JumpMonk discovered this in Politics
•11 reviews since Apr 6, 2006
politics, corruption
•commondreams.org/views06/0406-29.htm
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JumpMonk discovered 28 months ago- I doubt that the idea most of us have for "The United States of America" can survive without this. Certainly don't look to either party for help...
- psyffer rated 3 months ago
- Published on Thursday, April 6, 2006 by the Washington Spectator A Culture of Corruption Let's Save Our Democracy by Getting Money Out of Politics by Bill Moyers Found 23 Apr 2006 3:22am GMT
- commerican rated 27 months ago
- A former friend of mine once said "people don't decide public policy - business and corporations do". He meant that it was a good thing (hence the "former"). Big government cannot exist without big business. Limit or remove one, and you limit or remove the other. What a radical thought that people should manage their own lives, and have a say in where their money goes. When you spend millions on advertising, you can convince people to give up their freedoms, for the sake of "security" or "morals" or some other feel-good, meaningless utterance that has no basis nor comparison to reality. Is it the fault of the masses, or their tyrannical overlords?
- frenchfrog rated 27 months ago
- Take back our democracies by cutting the money from the equation for politicians.
- DickBeldin rated 28 months ago
- Why do they need so much money, you ask? Political campaigning is now an advertising intensive activity. It used to be that you would meet politicians at Labor Day and 4th of July picnics, at public meetings on college campuses, or (like Harry Truman) at the railway station on a train going through to the next town. Today, we are advanced. We pay millions of $ to advertising agencies to cook up speeches so politicians can be teleprompted or wired to hear advice through hearing aids from thinking aides.
- It is time to go back to campaigns in the candidate's words and in his own voice, live. No tapes, no loudspeakers, no soundbites.
- Why do they need so much money, you ask? Political campaigning is now an advertising intensive activity. It used to be that you would meet politicians at Labor Day and 4th of July picnics, at public meetings on college campuses, or (like Harry Truman) at the railway station on a train going through to the next town. Today, we are advanced. We pay millions of $ to advertising agencies to cook up speeches so politicians can be teleprompted or wired to hear advice through hearing aids from thinking aides.
- berrypicker rated 28 months ago
- "Money is choking our democracy to death. Our elections are bought out from under us and our public officials are doing the bidding of mercenaries. So powerful is the hold of wealth on politics that we cannot say America is working for all Americans. The majority may support such broad social goals as affordable medical coverage for all, decent wages for working people, safe working conditions, a secure retirement, and clean air and water, but there is no government "of, by, and for the people" to deliver on those aspirations." are they too rich and powerful to fight? is it a lost cause? maybe..but we can't give up the fight.
- LeadBlocker rated 28 months ago
A Culture of Corruption
Money is choking our democracy to death. Our elections are bought out from under us and our public officials are doing the bidding of mercenaries. So powerful is the hold of wealth on politics that we cannot say America is working for all Americans. The majority may support such broad social goals as affordable medical coverage for all, decent wages for working people, safe working conditions, a secure retirement, and clean air and water, but there is no government "of, by, and for the people" to deliver on those aspirations.
- kempgreen rated 28 months ago
- Before reading this-- let me say this. I work in healthcare. And it wasn't all that long ago since OIG put some restrictions on the "wine-and-dine" philosophy. The new recommendations keep drug reps (big drug companies) from buying doctors any large gifts that were not educationally related. Before that, they bought physicians ski trips, tv's, radios, ect. But the OIG curbed this in conjuction with the Phrma codes of conduct. Great thing for the public . . . except Congress picked all that money right back up in lobbying from the drug companies. Accepting gifts from lobbyists is the same damn thing. What's good for the goose is good for the gander. Now it's time for the government to practice what it preaches. FROM SITE: Money is choking our democracy to death . . . Our system of privately financed campaigns has shut regular people out of any meaningful participation in democracy. Less than one-half of one percent of all Americans made a political contribution of $200 or more to a federal candidate in 2004. When the average cost of winning a seat in the House of Representatives has topped $1 million, we can no longer refer to that chamber as "The People's House." Congress belongs to the highest bidder. . . . [T]he business of influencing our elected representatives has become a growth industry. Since President Bush was elected the number of registered lobbyists in Washington has more than doubled. That's 16,342 lobbyists in 2000 and 34,785 last year: 65 lobbyists for every member of Congress. The total spent per month by special interests wining, dining, and seducing federal officials is now nearly $200 million. Per month. I am an equal opportunity muckraker. Anyone who saw the documentary my team and I produced on the illegal fund-raising for Bill Clinton's re-election knows I am no fan of the Democratic money-machine that helped tear away the party from whatever roots it had in the struggles of working people. But today the Republicans own the government lock, stock, and barrel. And they have turned their self-proclaimed revolution into a cash cow. . . . The "K Street Project"--the most successful shakedown operation since the first Gilded Age--was the brainchild of Representative Tom DeLay and Grover Norquist . . . In addition to finding Jesus, Tom DeLay discovered the power of money to drive his career. By raising more than $2 million from lobbyists and business groups and distributing it to dozens of Republican candidates in 1994, the year of the Republican breakthrough in the House, DeLay bought the loyalty of many freshmen legislators who helped elect him Majority Whip, the House's number three man. You may say, "What can we do about it? These forces are too rich, too powerful, too entrenched to be defeated." Maybe. But if others had given up before us, blacks would still be three-fifths of a person, women wouldn't have the vote, workers couldn't organize, and children would still be working in the mines. It's time to fight again. These people in Washington have no right to be doing what they are doing. It's not their government, it's your government. They work for you, and if they let you down and sell you out, they should be fired. That goes for everyone, from the lowliest bureaucrat in town to the senior leaders of Congress on up to the president of the United States. The stakes are too high for us to give up. Fortunately, there is something we can do. A movement is gathering across the country that could restore democracy to a country run by money. It's the "clean money" campaign for the public funding of our elections. . . [In Connecticut] people decided to break the link between big donors and public officials. By December the legislature had passed clean-money reform, banning campaign contributions from lobbyists and state contractors. Connecticut is the first state where the legislature and governor have approved full public funding for their own races.
- pauljc rated 28 months ago
- From the page: "A Culture of Corruption Let's Save Our Democracy by Getting Money Out of Politics by Bill Moyers" ****
- gwilgus rated 28 months ago
- How sad that the majority of american citizens are no longer being represented in our government. I fear that the burden of greed in my nation will be so great that we will implode.
