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When Madison, Jon Jay and Harrison went on about "factions", they didn't have wealth interest in mind. The Federalist who basically framed the constitution, as we know it, feared rebellions (factions) against the unjust system that dominated during that time. Early American history is much more complicated than simple anecdotes about misunderstood Madisonian ideology.
Madison, along with a lot of the "founding fathers", feared the rank and file citizenry of new "infant empire" as George Washington called it. Madison not only welcomed special interest, he ensured that it would dominate our government. Madison did understand history and wasn't going to chance his new republic to hands of unwashed masses. He believe in aristocratic rule and the Senate still reflects Madison's vision today. Madison had contempt for democratic rule and the "leveling" spirit of the unbridled heard.
Madison also understood that he would be judged by history. I believe that's why his attempt to put in the historical record, his contempt for the system he helped design is disingenuous. It's like Eisenhower admission about the Military Industrial Complex taking over the country. The same Military Industrial Complex Ike whole heartedly supported and help design.
I understand the disappointment with the election results, but deifying the founding fathers for their resistance to special interest is not a honest assessment of their intent. In my not so humble opinion, the founding fathers were a special interest group and they intend for this country to be dominated by special interest. They just eliminated the British aristocracy and installed their own.
I put this comment in yesterday's blog, but I think it is more appropriate here.
It is almost breathtaking how open Mitch M is about his corruption. One of the reporters in Obama's press conference today, Nov 5, 2014, quoted Mitch. Mitch said before he will negotiate with Obama, Obama has to declare a tax holiday for the $3 trillion overseas, let the XL pipeline go forth ($80 billion for the Kochs), and remove the tax on medical devices in Obamacare. In other words, Obama has to pay off Mitch's billionaire buddies/supporters before he will negotiate.
To answer Thom's rhetorical question: Yes. Yes, they did.
To quote Randy Newman: It's money that matters.
The nation's regulatory capture is essentially complete. We don't have the Courts where mandatory arbitration removes civil matters from judges and juries. The Federal Bench is packed solid with center-right to far-right jurists - and we will see no seats filled for two years to come. State Courts are all that we have left, and the inroads against them are vast and terrifying.
We don't indict, much less try, the big felons - consider this man, the most visible face in the mortgage scandals - no criminal charges and a "settlement" of $67.5 meg (on $406 meg of personal income) with all criminal investigations concluded in 2011. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angelo_Mozilo
However, criminal prosecutions for average cases will continue down the 99% guilty plea path where the prosecutor's power to over-charge a defendant demanding a trial increases defense costs beyond measure.
Public defenders, never well paid - or assigned a reasonable case load - are already dwindling in number - and PD funding cuts are certain to increase with this election's results. Absent a Public Defender the Court must appoint a counsel for those defendants who cannot afford one (most defendants cannot afford legal counsel).
The Court-appointed counsel - taken from his/her practice in another field - will almost always be ineffective (to say the least).
My own brother-in-law, a transactional attorney, was appointed to defend in a rape case - a man who had never tried a case in his life (and, still hasn't as far as I'm concerned - but, with 66 federal trials under my belt, what do I know?). His interest in that appointment was so slight that he never bothered to call me (a former assistant prosecutor) despite the fact that I was less than 300 mi away.
He deferred his opening statement, never cross examined any prosecution witness, and he put the defendant on the stand (that is almost ALWAYS the wrong thing to do) and offered no other witnesses to rebut the prosecution's case in chief. His closing lasted less than a minute and the result was a conviction.
Was the accused guilty? I don't know.
Did the accused have a competent defense: certainly not.
Was the defense adequate under the state's law? Yes.
There exists precedent supporting a defense counsel waiving opening and closing arguments and performing minimal direct and cross examination. Only where a defense counsel had to be woken, multiple times, during trial is "ineffective assistance" a slam dunk. Judges ought to demand more from appointed counsel - but, they don't. So much for Gideon v. Wainwright http://www.oyez.org/cases/1960-1969/1962/1962_155
What is the path for our nascent experiment with Universal Healthcare? I shudder to think of the steps that Congress will take these next two years - to say nothing of the Supreme Court's latest case, King v. Burwell, challenging the authority of the tax subsidy component of the ACA. http://www.modernhealthcare.com/assets/pdf/CH95770731.PDF It was argued last Friday. See, http://www.scotusblog.com/case-files/cases/king-v-burwell/
I don't see the next two years as a "lame duck" presidency so much as an out-and-out repudiation of the substantive achievements of one of the most conservative of Democrats ever to serve in the highest office. The underlying basis for this turn of events can be explained in many different ways - but, from where I sit, I think that the gross failure to vote by the electorate with the most to lose can be squarely blamed on the "genteel" racism that pervades our nation - an echo of our slave-holding past.
If we are to regain any modicum of egalitarianism we will have to rely upon the growing blocks of the population that are not historically linked to slavery. Our Asian and Hispanic populations hold the future of our nation's democracy.
JohnL RE#15 -- I think a more accurate description is gullible (vs. stupid). They believe the evening news is giving them the whole truth.
Not link, but length.
AIW RE#12, 14-- A great catch. I think it would make a great bumper sticker (except for its link).
Actually I may have come up with a bumper sticker afterall: Pray Now Pay Later
"Will the billionaires buy another election?" More shilldom from the king of shills. Do you mean tv advertisement spending when you say buying an election? Shill, you are lumping all Americans in with your democratic party brain dead constituants. Watching ANY political ad, which are just mud slinging events, and believing what they say is for total FOOLS. The outcome of these elections was driven by the total partisanship of Obama's politics, which were mostly failures.
It is almost breathtaking how open Mitch M is about his corruption. One of the reporters in Obama's press conference quoted Mitch. Mitch said before he will negotiate with Obama, Obama has to declare a tax holiday for the $3 trillion overseas, let the XL pipeline go forth ($80 billion for the Kochs), and remove the tax on medical devices in Obamacare. In other words, Obama has to pay off Mitch's billionaire buddies/supporters before he will negotiate.
Ou812 RE#36 -- Another way to say it is who needs to buy advertising if faux news is giving it to you for free.
A small group of wealthy people rose up and seized all the wealth and all the power in the election process, getting their people into office, because the majority of Americans are just plain stupid! (ref. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cGKEkI8IV2o)
So, if the American Empire collapses, maybe that would be a good thing!
WAKE UP AMERICA... WE ARE BEING HAD!!!
Stopgap, I think that last sentence of your #12 post would make an excellent bumper sticker. - AIW
Who will tell the people?....not the man who could and should have, "Obama"....he's already kissing McConnell's raggedy ass by offering compromise with the hope that by doing so he can avoid impeachment hearings. Meanwhile the corpse media is also bending over for the old codger, giving him loads of attention as if he deserves it. Not a surprise that the Fascist controlled media isn't mentioning a word about Turtleman's obstruction, so I will.
McConnell's filibuster record, "obstruction rate," the last two years was 82%, in other words he voted in favor of a filibuster 147 out of 177 total times. The Dems damn well better take due notice of the high bar he has set and top it the next two years.
Has anybody bothered to explain to the brilliant man in the White House that as Thom pointed out today, across the country the vast majority voted yes on all progressive ballot measures? Simultaneously they voted for stiffs that are against the same measures, this because of billionaire sponsored mass media disinformation. Armed with this little fact Obama needs to reconsider his so called willingness to compromise with the billionaire party. By doing so he is in reality only reaching out to anti american criminals like the 42 who paid for the lies....not the vulnerable citizens who fell for them.
Shortly after Obama's inauguration in 2008, he gave a "get out of jail free" pass to the Bush administration, the Banksters, Corporatists, Wall Street and all the other criminals that got us into a needles war and crashed our economy, poisoned our environment, gutted safety laws for the sake of more profits and on and on. This was not the beginning of the end. The beginning of the end was when the Supreme Court named George W. Bush president. However, it doomed Obama's legacy.
I keep hearing about all the great things Obama accomplished. The thing they often bring up is reducing the deficit. What they don't say is that the reduction of the deficit has been largely accomplished on the backs of the middle class and the poor. Not only have the rich not been asked to sacrifice; they have been lavishly rewarded for their greedy immoral treasonous behavior beyond their wildest dreams. This really Robin Hood in reverse.
What Republicans know that Democrats don't know, is that elections are not won on the issues. They are won on perception. The Supreme Court gave the Republicans the means to create any perception of their opponents that suits their extremist right wing agenda, with the Citizens United decision.
Another thing that the Republicans understand is the old Mark Twain quote…"a lie gets half way around the world before the truth can get it's boots on". A lie only needs faith, the truth requires data, context, testing etc. Therefore lying will always trump truth, especially with bigots, the greedy and special interests that see the truth as contrary to their ideology. This explains why progressive messaging is so difficult. The truth usually does not fit on a bumper sticker.
When I reached age 18 and registered to vote, my parents gave me some advice that has served me well over the years. First, pick a party instead of being independent so that you can vote in primaries. A secret ballot means there is no requirement to vote for the party you belong to. Second, never vote for anyone or anything you haven't thoroughly researched. And by research, they meant reading and educating yourself from various sources, and by paying attention at times other than election season. They said not one thing about listening to political ads.
Then I went to art school and among my requirements was a class in advertising - as in the techniques used to sell a product or an idea. Interestingly, commercial advertising is an outgrowth of political propaganda, ostensibly a more benign cousin. There is supposed to be some "truth in advertising" but there are half-truths, insinuations, lies of omission, and the use of emotion-laden words. Edward Bernays, the nephew of Sigmund Freud, was the initial driver in the US of sophisticated political and commercial advertising, or shall we say Psy-Ops. He wrote the book, "Propaganda", which should be a must-read. That and Noam Chomsky's book "Media Control" would go a long way toward recognizing the ways we are manipulated into voting against our best interests.
CERULEAN has part of the answer in that people need to vote BUT the Dem politicians all ran away from Obama and his merits [which were hardly ever enumerated by them] using the ill begotten advice of their advisors/consultants [complete wastes] who are paid a flat fee regardless of whether the Dem candidate wins or loses. The Repubs also pay their advisors/consultants a flat fee BUT pay a bonus if they win!!! Duh! Guess who gets the better advice??????
Also, let us not forget the discipline exerted by the Repubs knocking out any Tea Partiers in the primaries who was going to be a threat and split the vote whereas the Dems were running in a variety of directions within their respective arena - losing focus!!!!! The Dems need to attend the School of Obama on how to run elections in a disciplined fashion not letting the opposition "scare" you and your electorate - keeping the eye on the ball. The Dems also need to learn how to "shout down" their opponents [as was done to them by the Repubs] itemizing their negative points one-by-one in glaring neon lights showing their deficiency's of which they're are a multitude!!!!!
Wake up Dems! The Repubs are already preparing to trounce you in the next round with money, lies and deceits as was done this time. Sad! Very sad . . .
Political commercials are so annoying I'm surprised that anyone watches them, or takes them seriously if they do. Most of the time we just jump over them with DVRs or take a trip to the kitchen or bath room. Seriously, no body watches commercials except during Super Bowl. I'm having a hard time believing that commercials can swing an election. I think that like me, most people have their minds made up before that crap even starts running. On the other hand, talk shows that run year round hold the real power of influence.
Ensuring representation only to those who are fortunate enough to have taxable incomes? I don't support that. This would imply that the rich should have more representation than the working class, many of whom are paid too little to owe taxes today, as well as the masses of jobless poor.
Frankly, I fear that it's game over for any reasonable hope that the democracy we all yearn for can be restored, without a period of traumatic violence.
I for one do not like the idea of uttering the Pledge of Allegiance to the United States of America, as we don't live in that kind of country any more. Makes me feel ill.
I don't disagree with any of this. Every step of the way, ordinary people were telling the party leadership, Dem legislators and the media what the problem is, only to be ignored. Every time the Party moves to the right, they lose. 2014 is a solid repudiation of the right wing of the Dems -- NOT of President Obama. I do put most of the blame on the media marketed to libs (perhaps with certain MSNBC hosts in the lead), which worked so hard for the last six years to divide and conquer the masses who voted for Obama, pitting the middle class against the poor, workers against the jobless, the Clinton Dems against the Obama Dems. I blame this media for exploiting the (quite puzzling) ignorance of the population, most notably concerning 2016. The 2016 Dem Party candidate is, of course, VP Joe Biden. H.Clinton is not the candidate. Granted, she (or any other qualified Dem) could challenge Biden for the nomination, but this would guarantee a Republican win.
@JOHNBEST: Yes and put them all in prison together for their final party while Obama is president so he can fill the vacancies!!!!
While I can appreciate all of the howls about outside money people choose to believe what these ads are saying. It's their fault. They are lazy, uninformed, and tuned out of the ongoing political process. If it wasn't for the fact that a significant number of people do care, remain informed and show up to vote and deserve better, I would gladly say f**k them, they'll get what they deserve.
While I can appreciate all of the howls about outside money people choose to believe what these ads are saying. It's their fault. They are lazy, uninformed, and tuned out of the ongoing political process. If it wasn't for the fact that a significant number of people do care, remain informed and show up to vote and deserve better, I would gladly say f**k them, they'll get what they deserve.
I went to the postoffice today, while there, it dawned on me... how much longer will the postoffice be spared from privitazition by Republicans? And if you think that is a good thing, think Comcast. Republican voters are like the perverbial frog in the pot of water that has the heat turned on but they sit in the water until they are cooked to death. And they are taking us with them.
As a graduate of the Georgia Police Academy you must have been asleep during "how to hold your pistol" chapter.
If you shoot a semi automatic pistol with the grip you are using in the photo, you will take your thumb off.