Jim Hightower Says, Follow the Money

August 18, 2010 by PaulM Posted in Current Events, Election 2010, History, Lowell 4 Comments

Texas free-thinking commentator Jim Hightower says watch the money being poured into the 2010 campaigns. Republican backers and candidates are rolling up huge sums of money to power an Obama backlash. Read his column here, which I picked up from truth-out.org, and consider supporting the sources of these opinions.

4 Responses to Jim Hightower Says, Follow the Money

  1. kad barma says:

    This is exactly the canard that has landed us in the morass of pork barrel, irresponsible politics where opposition to ones opponents is the only objective, regardless of the point trying to be made.

    Democratic backers and candidates rolled up huge sums of money to power a Bush backlash, and we STILL got corporate welfare, out-of-control pork barrel spending, and indefensible assaults against our rights. (Can anyone with a conscience believe that approving assassinations of American citizens can ever be right???)

    Both sides play this game–“LOOK!!! the other guys are piling up lots of money–QUICK–send us as much as you can so we can make our pile just as big.

    And the end result is that all we get is screwed by BOTH sides.

    Wake up. Sapere Aude. Unenroll. STOP donating to your side, because donating to your side only causes someone else to donate to the other side, and nothing ever changes.

  2. PaulM says:

    Kad:

    I’ve been a Democrat since I registered to vote at 18, and I was a Democrat in my head before that. My parents were Roosevelt Democrats coming out of the Great Depression and World War Two. I was six when President Kennedy, a young Massachusetts Catholic Democrat, was sworn in as President. Pretty powerful syjmbolism. If you were six years old in January 1960, that felt like the future. Who knew what was coming? But I didn’t check my brain at the door when I chose the D, and I see some of the same problems you do.

    We need a viable third party or something akin to what happened in Britain with Conservs and Lib-Dems forming a hybrfid governing experiment to see if the ideological gridlock can be broken. The President, Senate, and House D’s with crucial help from a few R’s did pass some major and in my view necessary legislation since Jan. ’09. Some of us are grateful for that. Neither side will unilaterally disarm itself of money while the political soup is so toxic. Something’s gotta give. I wonder why a reasonable Green Party has not taken hold. We’ve had plenty of Earth Day celebrations to make the point about the environment. Despite any Obama youth movement, I can’t believe the majority of people under 35 is going to either of the major parties these days. Unenrolled or “independent” has no infrastructure for organizing—everyone is freelance, an individual contractor, so to speak. The electoral system is built for party vehicles.

    I can’t recall anyone in the modern era using the term “post-partisan” until Barack Obama showed up on the scene. Newsflash: President Obama is not perfect. I think he said while campaigning that we should expect him and his administration to make mistakes. He’s admitted a few. On balance, I see much more good than bad coming from his administration. Tweny months later, the McCain-Palin alternative that was offered looks even worse. Some of us thought Obama had a chance to change the game because of his outlook, but the partisan behavior is as nasty as ever. I’m not neutral, but I say the national bottom-feeding is worse on the national R side. I believe for now a reasonable person has to pick a side and try to do the best with that team. It doesn’t mean I can’t support an R like Sen. Olympia Snowe of Maine or an I like Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont when I want.

    The R’s and D’s should both be worried though, because my sense is that the generational trend is in the KB direction. Choose your soundtrack. Do it yourself. Make a mix tape. Shoot your own movie. Form a band or an over-30 soccer team. Release music via the web. Publish on demand. People now have much more control over the means of production and their own message. The parties aren’t telling many folks what to do, but they still control most of the sorting process and thus the choices on voting day.

  3. kad barma says:

    Here’s irony: Just days after a “follow the money” (and somewhat panicked in tone) alarm call about money flowing to Republican causes, the Democratic National Committee chairman is quoted in pointing out, as the AP characterizes is, “strong July fundraising”.

    http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100820/ap_on_el_ge/us_democrats_elections

    The established parties are richer and more powerful than ever in terms of their ability to compromise civil liberties, (e.g. Patriot Act, Executive Orders, authorized assassination of American citizens, etc.), and loot the Treasury. (e.g. Massive corporate bailouts, huge “stimulus” packages that are nothing more than conduits to preferred companies and industries for projects that produce no civil wealth at all). The concern we should all have as citizens is that jumping onto one bandwagon or the other is EXACTLY the problem that has brought us here to this catastrophe in the first place.

    In a Mexican stand-off like this, it’s putting DOWN the weapons (i.e. the huge sums of free cash given to major political parties) that can save us. Loading them up with yet more ammunition only guarantees that we’ll all be cut down in the crossfire.

    Sapere Aude. Unenroll.