I have long been a fan of neither major party. I've frequently felt that, in a larger sense, it didn't matter who won the election. I usually saw little overall distinction in how policy played out, in spite of what seem like bright-line distinctions between party platforms.
Last year, I had a temporary swoon. I lurched suddenly from jaded cynicism into hope. I was a late adopter, as I often am. But, like many, I redeveloped a belief in this electoral system and this government, and (in spite of Prop 8) on election night I wondered if, maybe, finally, things might really go differently. There might be (gasp) change!
Well, that's mostly over now. I rather quickly began to suspect, as the staff and cabinet were named -- and I think we should all should have suspected it sooner, looking back -- the change is relatively cosmetic. The party in office has changed. The people in power haven't.
It's time to talk about that pernicious problem, that elephant that has once again taken a giant steaming shit on the rug in the nation's living room: the f-word. Funding.
It's the funding that is the problem. And I'm not talking about who funds programs. We all do that. I'm talking about who funds CAMPAIGNS. That, we don't all do.
And Democrats, like Republicans, know who their masters are. We may be The Base, but we ain't the masters, folks. Yes, we volunteered. Yes, we donated time and money. Yes, we worked tirelessly, and we voted -- this all matters, and we've continued to make enough noise on a variety of issues to force the Obama administration and Congresscritters to pay us some mind and respond. But most of us don't swing big enough to run with the big boys.
Our pockets just aren't deep enough.
Dick Durbin told us who "own the place" . Dianne Feinstein doesn't give a damn what the left thinks. She gives a damn what her campaign donors think. Evan Bayh is literally sleeping with the enemy. Jim Cooper over in the House has painted us a crystal clear picture of who his constituents are. So have Max Baucus and Kent Conrad -- much less Chuck Grassley and Mike Enzi.
And these are just the ones I can think of off the top of my head.
The only elected official I've recently seen really shift relative to voter anger is Arlen Specter, and that's just because he's afraid of losing his seat and is probably too old to walk through that revolving door between the Houses of govenrment and the corps of lobbyists waiting just a hair's breadth away.
But, my, that lobbyist access. It's a good thing Big Pharma's top flight lobyist, Billy Tauzin, has a quick path to the White House's ear, isn't it? That'll help keep us taxpayers from saving TOO MUCH money on prescription drugs. That's good for business! So it's good for campaign coffers.
Because, really, a half million bucks raised on ActBlue, while impressive, ain't chump change compared to $1.4 million a day.
We taxpayers can't afford lobbyists to look after our interests. We're supposed to vote for the people who should do that. The only lobbyists we pay for are the ones that corporations are all too happy to fund with the tax dollars our government gives away in tax cut after boondoggle after tax cut after boondoggle.
Who's gotten HOW much from Treasury since the Obama administration took office? I have no idea, but I know they're making a killing with my money and yours. No transparency. And no accountability -- except to the corporate funder.
We don't know how this healthcare fight is going to shake out, but when your starting point is to give away the option that most benefits the taxpayer and the average American and most scares the corporate donor, I get suspicious. If we walk out of this fight with a mandate to purchase insurance, but no public option and government subsidies to purchase it...it'll be yet another giant taxpayer wealth transfer to a corporate funder. Sure, it'll be hailed as almost everyone covered! Fantastic! And almost everyone soaked, too.
The Iraq war and associated boondoggles have fabulously enriched the military-industrial complex, and Bush's cronies in the energy industry have grown fat and flush, too. Last fall, and continuing into this administration, the finance sector stepped up with its hands out. And now the healthcare and health insurance industry is loudly, via well-purchased legislators and administration officials and astroturfed citizens, proclaiming its demand for a share of the pie.
These are the people who fund campaigns. These are the people with access. Rahm has to protect the Blue Dogs -- they're the Democratic Corporate Core. They're the key to Democrats retaining power -- because they ensure that corporate funders' bidding gets done in Congress. As my beloved heroine Molly Ivins said, "You gotta dance with them what brung you."
Until campaign finance reform is enacted, there is only so much hope for change, folks. And that reform has to be enacted by.......Congress. That's a body about as likely to self-regulate as any of the corporations which fund them.
I have the sneaking suspicion we'll see campaign finance reform right after we see those financial regulations promised to keep this winter's little bazillion-dollar hiccup from happening again. If the corporate funders have their way, I'm guessin' on about half-past never.