Today’s explanation for the failure of our democracy is an easy one that any student of history could rattle off the top of his or her head. Democracies fail when their political leaders become dominated by the influence of large business and financial interests, and vote not in the public interest but in the interest of their wealthy “friends.” And sometimes it doesn’t take many politicians to bring about a massive failure to promote the general welfare.
Exhibit A: Senator Joseph Lieberman.
Please consider the following facts. Here are the career political contributions to Senator Lieberman from the following industries/business interests:
Health Professionals $1,041,362
Insurance $1,040,320
Pharmaceuticals/Health Products $617,540
And when you look at the Health Sector (which combines contributions by individuals and political action committees) you discover that Senator Lieberman has received a whopping $2,399,701. This does not include money from lawyers and lobbyists (another $4,045,367) who may represent health care providers and insurance companies among their clientele.
Indeed, Senator Lieberman, long known for his adamant defense of the most egregious policies of the Israeli government, actually received less money from Pro-Israeli interests ($2,008,278) over the course of his career. So it should come as no surprise that Senator Lieberman opposed any and all provisions of the health care reform bill that would negatively impact his true constituency: insurance companies and pharmaceutical companies.
And he got his way! Faced with the opposition of one corrupt member of the Senate, the Democratic leadership surrendered to his every demand.
For a while this week, it looked like the opposition of Sen. Joe Lieberman, the Connecticut independent, could doom the Democrats’ attempt at passing health care. That changed when Majority Leader Harry Reid gave in to Lieberman’s demands on the Medicare buy-in program and the public option.
But then again, Senator Reid got money from health care industry interests also. Just not as much as Joe. Indeed, I’ll bet you would be hard pressed to find any senator outside of a few (e.g., Bernie Sanders) who didn’t take money from health insurance companies and pharmaceutical companies, and their respective lobbyists, to finance their political campaigns.
It’s just that Senator Lieberman was the most effective in delivering the goods to his patrons. Well that’s the case with all investments: some are just more rewarding than others.
And that is one reason why democracies fail, my friends. Maybe tomorrow we will discuss unneccesary foreign wars of occupation and conquest.
After the deal Rove cooked to get Liebermann in he’s got to be smiling big time. As for Reid, at this point he’s cooked.
Yesterday I went over and signed the Public Option petition at Bernie Sanders’ site, I have a hunch from his position today that he reads petitions on his site.
There’s a lot to be said for his kind of Independent.
In case you want to sign the petition
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Franken To Lieberman: It’s Time For You To Stop Talking Now
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."
As always, follow the money.
Put Israel support into play. That’s all he really cares about. Threaten support for Israel, Lieberman would play ball.
But, of course, cutting support for Israel is not possible. Cannot be done. As such, since we have no leverage on Joe, he can do and say whatever he wants.
If you want to get leverage, you need to go to the heart. For Lieberman, that would be Israel.
Steven, Lieberman is the posterboy for a system too corrupt to survive much longer. Every elected pol takes money from those who have the most of it, or — more importantly — who are in a position to buy their own privileges by diverting the flow of other peoples’ money to bribery.
However, given the corrupt system and the antique roadblocks designed to thwart uppity democracy, it seems misguided to focus on the Dem leadership. In the present situation, what would you have them do with Lieberman? Either they lose on HCR without even getting to a vote, or they buy Joe’s cloture vote surrendering to his demands. In the situation, what would you do?
My point isn’t Lieberman per se, it’s the system that has evolved to make a Lieberman (and all the rest)b possible, where money is more important than anything else because it is the money that buys the ad time on TV.
They don’t even have to vote in the interests of the populace. It is usually sufficient so that you can just vote in the interests of the STATE itself. I think this drives me the most crazy. If the country collapses into chaos and poor people who is going to buy the shit that keep the economy running?
No one looks past the next quarterly statement in American business. Long term thinking is not emphasized in business, nor I suspect is it emphasized much in business school except in an abstract sense.
Nah, land wars in Asia are so groovy that we started not one but two! Rock on!
There is always only one reason: The electorate is stupid.