Insert a Trite Metaphor for a Corral #107

Posted on July 24, 2011 in Roundup

Any fool can criticize, condemn and complain, and most fools do. — Benjamin Franklin

Norquist and the Alienation of Congress. Who elects our representatives? Who do they represent? The Founding Fathers meant the questions to be simple ones. The answer is, of course, their constituents. But the influx of money into political campaigns and the rise of pressure groups has removed the focus of representatives from their districts.

[[Grover Norquist]] has been called the most powerful unelected politician in the country because he has persuaded 97% of the representatives in the House to sign a no tax increase pledge. The trouble that this has caused in the course of the debt ceiling talks has Americans furious with him. Trust fund baby Norquist can’t understand why they want to “pick on” the rich. Like many of his class, the difference between money you have earned yourself and money that was given to you by your parents is unclear to him. There’s a fear in the back of Norquist’s head, one that suggests that if he comes to live with the same resources as the average American family, his uniqueness and his power will disappear. Ordinariness would stifle him. He would become another voice ignored by Republican politicians because they lack money. As he would become in this nation growing more like the England of King George III than the Colonies.

But Norquist is the symptom. Congress has never been good about curbing the potency of lobbyists. Their dollars help them to keep their jobs, their fortunes, and their power. Recent Supreme Court decisions etched by Republican appointees — at least two of which have entertained conflicts of interest — have discounted the need to contain the corruption posed by campaign financing laws. Congress is up for sale and the buyers don’t want their taxes raised. So they press the politicians they own to sign Norquist’s pledge.

Marx spoke of the alienation of the worker from the product of his labor, the denial of profit to those who make with their hands the things that people buy. This concept has been adopted by right wing econobots as an aim. A similar trend can be observed in our democracy: the alienation of the voter from the product of her/his vote. Your representative is not beholden to you as much as s/he is beholden to the people who bought the seat for her/him.

So what can we do?

We still have power — power to reject the corporate choices being made in Congress by phrasing in a new way an old, unwritten standard. Instead of voting for those who make pledges to Norquist, Adam Green, MoveOn, or any other PAC, we should demand that the only pledges a Congressperson should make are to her/his constituents, that the only oath that matters is the oath of office. If we of the right, left, and center stick to this even when our own cherished issues are at stake, we will begin to see the end of the new corruption. Grover Norquist and others like him will have to take their balls and go home. Then we can pick up the vital game of constructing a nation once more.

• Politics 101 for the Far Left — They don’t like hearing these lessons, but they are true.
• Norway, Islam and the Threat of the West — When a white man commits an act of terrorism, he is labeled a “madman”. This ignores the ideology that drives such people. Then see how one self-annointed “terrorism expert” had the Twitterverse believing that the bombing and the raid were blamed on Muslims at first. All too predictable.
• The Bomb that Didn’t Go Off — A reminder that most of our acts of terrorism are homegrown. Watch not Al Qaeda, but Christian Identity. Also see this map of terrorist targets aimed at liberal and government targets since 2008.
• The forgotten right-wing past of Ed Schultz — Democrat? What kind of Democrat tells his followers to boycott an election so that the worst possible candidates take over the country?
• Former Fox producer claimed network’s “Brain room” led to phone hacking — Rupert Murdoch is not like you and me. Then there’s that other media scandal involving Aaron Schwartz. Should it even be one?
• Marcus Bachmann, Unlicensed psychologist, fraud and husband of Michele Bachmann — You should know these facts about the man who will really be running the country if you elect his wife. This is what the Koch Brothers want — dumb lackies who think they are the world.
• Most Controversial CIA Programs — These are the ones which we know enough about to talk about
• The NFL Star and the brain injuries that destroyed him — This will undoubtably be received with a yawn, but read the story.
• Around the table — You know you are in Meeting Hell when these demons manifest themselves
• Why Gay Marriage is good for Straight America — I think we get mistracked when we limit marriage to being “about the kids”. It’s about creating a family together. And that takes at least two.
• Parasites Help Reveal New Ecological Rules: Animal Species Large and Small Follow Same Rule for How Common They Are in Ecosystems
• Batman villains psychoanalyzed by mental health experts — No, The Joker is not mentally ill. He is a psychopath. There’s a world of difference.

Tweet: Terror and fear are not conscience: they are its antithesis.

“We will retaliate with more democracy” -Stoltenberg