YES! They’re too tight with Congress & corporate America.
54%
NO! Money in politics is the real reason Congress is broken!
46%
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Thom's Blog Is On the Move
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Corporate money is poisoning everything. Agree, both answers are pretty much correct. Media, because of Michael Powell, Gen. Colin Powell's son, destroyed independent news agencies across the country, by allowing monopoly consolidation.
No, Boehner had declared when Obama was elected that the Republicans would focus on making Obama a "one-term president." When Obama was re-elected, this was updated to a vow to focus ONLY on obstructing everything that Obama tried to achieve -- and then blame Obama for it. For once, they kept their word. They have done this to the exclusion of doing the work that is vitally important toward addressing both our poverty crisis and repairing our damaged international relations. As for media, it's necessary to remember that they are corporate entities, and as such, reflect only the corporate point of view. I think I'm more concerned about the rightward drift of "progressive" media since Clinton, especially on socioeconomic issues (which define the quality of life in the US).
I answered yes but "do nothing Congress " is not an accurate framing and anyone that uses the phrase contributes to the continuance of the malaise. Some will argue intransigence on the part of democrats but when I look at positions for which the congressional progressive caucus as well as many other dems dig in, the issues are about the betterment of the majority, jobs, health-care, compensation for work, the environment, etc yet we the majority continue to loose ground. We continue to loose ground because of framing, which influences participation in the democratic process, the framing "do nothing Congress" is just one example.
Yes Congress is failing to conduct the business of governance in our names but accurately Congress is unable to conduct governance due completely to the intransigence of the political wing of the uber class, the 1%ers. While they the so-called republicans would find it troublesome to act directly in the interest of the uber class, they remain largely successful by the misdirection of blocking and charging dems with unwillingness to compromise, nothing gets done. Then, as people with a voice continue to pronounce it "do nothing,", said enough it gains substance despite being factually inaccurate. An additional impact of voluntary disenfranchisement on the belief that one's institutions of governance are corrupt, or broken, or have nothing to do with me, which is the first step in a minority gaining hegemony under democracy, I.e., limit/reduce the pool of those who would participate meaning-vote.