October 18, 2011
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Money may not talk, but it does surely buy, and it definitely buys a voice.
Under the new rules for the 2008 election cycle, the DCCC [Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee] asked rank-and-file members to contribute $125,000 in dues and to raise an additional $75,000 for the party. Subcommittee chairpersons must contribute $150,000 in dues and raise an additional $100,000. Members who sit on the most powerful committees … must contribute $200,000 and raise an additional $250,000. Subcommittee chairs on power committees and committee chairs of non-power committees must contribute $250,000 and raise $250,000. The five chairs of the power committees must contribute $500,000 and raise an additional $1 million. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, Majority Whip James Clyburn, and Democratic Caucus Chair Rahm Emanuel must contribute $800,000 and raise $2.5 million. The four Democrats who serve as part of the extended leadership must contribute $450,000 and raise $500,000, and the nine Chief Deputy Whips must contribute $300,000 and raise $500,000. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi must contribute a staggering $800,000 and raise an additional $25 million
Marian Currinder, Money in the House (2008)
This practice of paying for the positions came about under Gingrich with his “pay to play” scheme and has been continued since.
When the Founding Fathers, the darlings of the Tea Party, formed our Government, they formed it as a tri-partite organization (Legislative, Executive, and Judicial branches). They included checks and balances on all three branches. At the time, the United States was an agrarian society. Now that we have passed through the Agrarian Age, and into the Industrial Age, and now into the Information Age (and even, I and others would argue, into the Entertainment Age), we have more than these three power groups in Washington D.C. Now we have the lobbyists and the influencers dealing with power. These new “arms of government” have no checks or balances. Part of what Occupy Wall Street is including in this terrible practice of having only people who can and will pay have a voice in our government. Our representatives are not representing the 99% of us who would not contribute to their coffers just so they can sit in a favored seat. Too much control has been granted to the 1% who will give such as the lobbyists and those with independent wealth while we, the 99%, lose our representative voice. No wonder the Tea Partiers want to return to the days of the Founding Fathers – they’re afraid of these new power groups being controlled.
The system is broken. It became broken when there arose power brokers with no checks and balances. I don’t want to sound cynical, but if this system is not repaired by putting in checks and balances on these power groups, we will implode just like the Soviet Union imploded because of poor governance and economic idiocy. (And yes, the USSR imploded because of its financial instability – not the result of wise acts by Reagan.)
STOP THE INSANITY
Comments (19)
Yes, indeed, it is broken. I wonder when, how or if it will manage to be fixed. In our lifetimes?
@adventofreason - That was fast. There are some times when I see the chaos and the lack of direction of our society and I’m almost glad I don’t have children to worry about.
Are you familiar with the Peter Paul and Mary song, “Day Is Done” – my feelings exactly.
all you have to do is look at Wisconsin to see the absolute worst cases.
The Entertainment Age is certainly a good device to divert attention from the information available in the Information Age. Balance is definitely needed in our world. Good use of taokitteh pic.
I can’t wait to read your book!
Now, this is serious. Very serious indeed.
@RestlessButterfly - Thanks for the comment. I’m beginning to see that the lobbyists don’t get their power by contributing to elections, but rather by contributing to the already elected representatives and helping them to “buy” their seats of favor – for a favor. That is where the power change happens.
@hesacontradiction - Thanks. I need to discipline myself more to work on it. I’m afraid I’m still enjoying the “vacation” of not having to go to work nine hours every day. But I’m sure I’ll get to it soon. I’ve got the broad general outline.
(valuable message, but the glitter makes it hard to read. . . and the auto-play music isn’t good.)
Yes, big pharma, big oil, big coal, and big hedge funds always get their way, and I am pissed. It’s a racket, as my dad used to say. I get an average of one fund raising email per day from DNC, even though the election is a year away. Now I understand why. We cannot trust politicians any more.
@we_deny_everything - Thanks for the comment. Now it is more obvious to me that the power exchange from the lobbyists isn’t so much on the elections as it is on having the already elected official “pay to play”. I’ll bet you never got a request in your e-mail from an elected representative for money to pay for his “seat of favor” did you? Only the lobbyists get those requests.
@an_OM_aly - I feel that we are in the Age of Entertainment for a couple of reasons. One, if you were to ask any high school senior to list 20 people who “earn” over one million dollars a year, they could name you more than 20 without hesitating and every one of them would be a sports star, a popular musician (who is more of a performer than a musician), a movie star, or someone in the entertainment field. (And yes, I include sports in the entertainment field.)
The second thing is that an “age” is defined by its resources and those who control the resources. (The Industriatl Age, started in Lowell, MA was also defined by the people who held the water rights in New Hampshire to change their flow to go to Lowell to power the mills.) In the Entertainment Age, the power is in the IP (Intellectual Property) rights. Notice how few companies (like Disney) are grabbing up all the copyrights and other IP resources. We are not allowed to freely use these resources because they are “owned” by an oligopoly.
@godfatherofgreenbay - The 99% have definitely lost their voice in Wisconsin. Control there is definitely to a 1%. I say “a 1%” because it is a power group that may or may not be limited to the top 1% financially. But it is a group that controls the power and powerfully does things that are not representative of the 99%.
Very good post! & comments. Problems of the magnitude we are faced with today were not created overnight nor by a single cause. I tend not to blame government because we all know governments are to be feared not trusted. I look more toward insufficiencies in society that have allowed complacency to become widespread. Regulations not being enforced are a bigger problem than lack of regulations. Large conglomerates caring more about profits than sustainability of their workforce are destroying the environment, the economy, and the very base of our society…morals, manufacturing, and infrastructure. We buy things we want (due to extreme marketing) instead of what we need and can afford. The computer age is transforming the world as we know it exponentially more than the invention of the printing press did. Hopefully for the better. smile
@soundofthefalls - Thanks for your thoughtful and provocative comment. I agree with you 100%. I wrote this more as informational to be a wake-up call rather than seeking specific action. And I agree with you that the problem is society more than the government. On my signature line on my personal e-mail I state my mission to learn/teach critical analysis, empathy, ethics/justice, and conflict management. Because I feel our society is sadly lacking in all four of these areas.
I would like to recommend a book about the problems in our school system (that lead to overall problems in society. ) “The Underground History of American Education” by John Taylor Ghatto. It is available online and is free to read.
@curiousdwk - The big problem is these day everything has price tag. Money and power are the root of all evil.
@RestlessButterfly - Your quote is almost correct. If you check it out, you will see that it is the “love of money” (and power) which are the root of all evil. Money by itself is not evil, but the love of it is.
@curiousdwk - Thanks for the amendment and correction.
@soundofthefalls - Thanks for the note and the recommendation. I checked that book in Amazon.com and I’m not sure that home schooling is the answer. I haven’t found many parents who are capable of teaching critical analysis or empathy. Most home schoolers I know are religious and they are the worst when it comes to critical analysis, independent thought, or even empathy. I’m sure that his criticism of the public schools are spot on as there is definitely a lot of improvement necessary there. But I am not a conspiricist and feel that their shortcomings are more because of ineptitude rather than a Big Business conspiracy. I’ve worked in Big Business all my life and believe me, they aren’t capable of half of the conspiracies that are attributed to them. I think that’s the way it is with the school. I don’t think there is a hidden agenda as much as a complacency with going along with the status quo and failure (or refusal) to take inventory of what is actually being accomplished in our educational systems vs what should be accomplished.