After watching this John Oliver piece on DC fundraising, it makes you think Congress is even more crooked, money-obsessed and out of touch with everyday reality than you may think it is. Foruntately (or unfortunately) I don't make enough money or give enough money to get hit up on the phone by politicians, but the occasional $10 I can scrape together does get me a whole lot of emails. I'm cool (enough) like that.
There's also a good interview with current Rep. and former DCCC chairman Steve Israel starting around 14:20, who is alternately pathetic and refreshingly blunt and honest about how the game is played.
And you wonder why our economic policies and issue discussions are slanted toward rich people and ignore the many needs of the 99%? And you wonder why Sanders and Trump have both received support in each party's presidential primary by pointing out how rigged our current political economic system is? What's scary is that the money is less important at the presidential level (except that you need a certain amount to be able to compete), but are likely a bigger factor the farther downticket you go, where the candidates are less known and ads and other propaganda can make more of a difference with voters.
But wait, I was told by political experts that people don't care about money in politics, and that campaigning on corruption doesn't move the voter's needle, so that's why many politicians don't campaign on it as a central issue. Are they right, or do they want that to be the truth because it justifies their existence and the way they do things? I truly don't know this answer.
No comments:
Post a Comment