"Too many of our leaders have made a devil's bargain with corporate and wealthy interests"

[madfloridian]

I was thinking of this article which was referenced in another thread here. I wasn't going to post it, but this statement and the "gunslinger" statement are too important to forget.

Dean's Rough Ride

Here is the context of Paul Begala and gunslingers.

In forty years of observing presidential contests, I cannot remember another major candidate brutalized so intensely by the media, with the possible exception of George Wallace. Howard Dean contributed some fatal errors of his own, to be sure, but he also brought fresh air and new ideas, a crisp call to revitalize the Democratic Party and at least the outlines of deeper political and economic reforms. The reporters, as surrogate agents for Washington's insider sensibilities, blew him off. Dean's big mistake was in not recognizing, up front, that the media are very much part of the existing order and were bound to be hostile to his provocative kind of politics. To be heard, clearly and accurately, he would have had to find another channel.

For the record, reporters and editors deny that this occurred. Privately, they chortle over their accomplishment. At the Washington airport I ran into a bunch of them, including some old friends from long-ago campaigns, on their way to the next contest after Iowa. So, I remarked, you guys saved the Republic from the doctor. Yes, they assented with giggly pleasure, Dean was finished--though one newsmagazine correspondent confided the coverage would become more balanced once they went after Senator Kerry. Only Paul Begala of CNN demurred. "I don't know what you're talking about," Begala said, blank-faced. Nobody here but us gunslingers.

You had to have watched the Crossfire show's constant attacks on Dean every day to get the full import of that statement. Crossfire was central in those attacks.

Greider proceeds to present some of the lesser known comments by Howard Dean during his campaign. His words capture a lot of why some were so able to take his words to heart.

The party establishment, limp as it is, was correct to target Dean with tribal vengeance. From their narrow perspective, he represented a political Antichrist. The unvarnished way he talked. The glint of unfamiliar, breakthrough ideas in his speeches. His lack of customary deference to party elders (and to the media's own cockeyed definition of reality). What the insiders loathed are the same qualities many of us found exhilarating. I already feel nostalgia for his distinctive one-liners.

Here are a couple of those one-liners...

"Too many of our leaders have made a devil's bargain with corporate and wealthy interests, saying 'I'll keep you in power if you keep me in power.'"

"Over the last thirty years, we have allowed multinational corporations and other special interests to use our nation's government to undermine our nation's promise."

....""There is something about human beings that corporations can't deal with and that's our soul, our spirituality, who we are. We need to find a way in this country to understand--and to help each other understand--that there is a tremendous price to be paid for the supposed efficiency of big corporations. The price is losing the sense of who we are as human beings."

I wasn't going to post this as a separate thread, but I see the other thread is not going away. I just think he deserves some credit at a Democratic forum.

We need to remember the words of another Democratic leader, incidentally one I respect very much for his organizing and work. But I did feel sad when I read this statement by him about how we were diminished by our own party.

"freed... from positions making it difficult for us to win. "...Simon Rosenberg.

[kenny blankenship]

1. He was the real deal.

Naturally, he had to die.
(Maybe I should've said he was the real thing)

[Morgana LaFey]

21. You're not the first to note that

they COULD have killed him for real.

[msongs]

2. he certainly was no obama or hillary. nt

[EST]

3. In the mad rush to find some way to "heal" the rifts between

differing ideologies in this country, democratic leaders are way to eager to trust the "enemy" and to try to play to their "better" side. They haven't any.

I might be taken to task for calling republicans, broad brush style, the enemy, but they truly are. Their goals are not our goals. Their values are not our values.
They care nothing for humans outside their small circle, and if some otherwise "good" people have chosen to embrace the republican stance without knowing enough about what they really represent, difficult though it is to say, tough shit.

Thieves, liars, murderers, rapists, child molesters, wife beaters, assassins, racists, homophobes, gay-baiters, xenophobes, on and on, to the extent that they have any political instincts, are overwhelmingly republican. "Conservative" is not conservative: it is just a name. They conserve nothing and lie about that.

At this point, I think the partisan divide has to get much worse before it gets better. It is not partisan-that's just convenient shorthand, pretending it has something to do with political parties. They are crooks and gangsters and the only thing "partisan" about it is that they prefer to gang up under a banner called "republican" or "conservative."

Until there is some legal restraint on these society destroyers there will be no healing. Democratic leaders need to wise up and pay attention to reality.

[madfloridian]

9. The bipartisan play nice stuff started right after the election.

The media was using the word bipartisan every few minutes.

[cascadiance]

11. The term "bipartisan" has been so distorted now it is meaningless.

It no longer means trying to balance the wishes between different political ideologies. Even though it is still rationalized that way, what it REALLY means now is balancing the interests between voters and those interests of the folks that are paying for their campaign funding to get into office. Quite different balancing act. They just don't want to level with us what they REALLY mean when they try to explain their voting record as being somehow "bipartisan", and most of the time try to avoid talking about REAL contentious issues with (such as public campaign financing, etc.) at ALL. That's why so often they don't even TRY to explain how they are trying to balance two different viewpoints, just that they are "bipartisan" and leaving it at that, since that's the easiest way to *NOT* explain what their real balancing acts are!

[Usrename]

13. Bipartisanship: permitting Lieberman to investigate Bush.

It's a cruel farce. The fact that there are people in the Democratic Party that support the entire Bush Doctrine about preemptive wars and no taxes for the rich is now seen as bipartisanship. Taking impeachment off the table is a gesture that illustrates how the Dems are willing to "work together" to accomplish an agenda for the people (as long as that agenda has nothing to do with abolishing fascism or the executive's right to conduct extraordinary renditions).

[madfloridian]

19. Or....permitting Lieberman to say NOT to investigate Bush and the war

Lieberman doesn't want to to see us "digging around anymore for who did what in 2003"

I think we need to dig around a whole lot...but Lieberman has too much say in that.

[closeupready]

4. Media celebrities make buckets of money. Accustomed to the luxuries it affords them, why

would they favor a candidate who is more likely to raise their taxes and thus, "lower" their standard of living and effectively deliver them a pay cut in an amount which is more than the average Americans' annual salary? Who cares if that tax increase helps the government remain solvent?

No, the money has just become too good.

[Joe Chi Minh]

5. Really? Can there ever be enough money on offer to buy your soul?

I've never believed that "Every man has is price". Sure a lot do, but you often read or hear of people who aren't for sale at any price.

[closeupready]

6. I suppose when you get an offer you can't refuse, you make excuses for yourself.

"sonny boy has to go to Princeton" "I need a new car" "I have mortgage payments" etc. "... and it's just this one time, so..." So you're probably not really thinking about it in terms of integrity.

Sadly, I do NOT often read of people who aren't for sale. Just the opposite. I read all kinds of stories about people who sold out for life's comforts, for continued "access" and scoops, that sort of thing. Seems epidemic frankly.

(And need I remind you a lot of people are atheists who don't believe in souls. Or in good/evil. )

[madfloridian]

8. Expediency is the normal operating mode.

For everyone. Sadly.

[Joe Chi Minh]

12. I think that because so many Americans - not the poorest, either - maybe not poor,

as such, are living on the edge.

A catastrophic illness is often the last straw, a couple's life savings up in smoke.

However, when the majority of the public routinely have to worry about being ripped off by doctors/hospitals taking unnecessary tests, and worst of all, that the industry providing your cover is forcing its employees to do everything in their power to deny you the medical service you have paid for - that's major stress.

Working as a minicab driver, at one time (very intermittently, alas), I once picked up an American businessman, who was in awe that he'd lost his wallet at the airport and somebody had handed it in with no money or cards missing. I told him not to worry, Thatcher would see to it that kind of spirit would disappear before too long.

Actually, I'm pretty sure it's poor people, most of the time who remain honest. I mean those things you cited, I find absolutely disgusting. "Sonny Boy needs to go to Princeton", "I need a new car", "I have mortgage payments" etc. "... !!! Are they prizes you consider to be understandable in most Christians? Sorry, I couldn't wear that in a fit.

In Christ's own words, "You either love God and despise money, or you love money and despise God". Poor people, particularly with dependents, understandably would find despising money a luxury they could not afford. But thanks to Mr Princeton's covetous ambitions, a whole lot larger section of society must find themselves in much the same position. That would be why you are probably correct re the question of most Americans having their price. Which is ironical, since up to now, Americans have had a reputation for personal generosity all over the world.

For crying out loud, on one occasion, Jesus reproached the poor people for following him for a square meal! You CANNOT buy into the gee-gaws of affluence as anything like priorities and be even half true to the Christian faith.

All that's been going on S America in the name of the US these last 50 years and more, have depended on comfortably-off, putatively Christian Americans, who have put those worldly priorities before the very physical survival of the poorest people all over the world, and many fellow Americans who were not so poor, it seems. Your post is a real shocker.

[closeupready]

14. The overcommercialisation of American society is extremely disgusting, I agree.

And the hypocrisy of these "Christian" pastors who amass vast fortunes and huge expensive cathedrals is only part of why I am thoroughly disgusted with organized religion, and basically finished with it at this point.

With the exception of people like Bob Herbert, most wealthy media personalities who predictably bash Democratic candidates give bigger craps about their tax breaks than they do about how best to solve real-world, NOW problems.

(It's a free country and their entitled to their opinions, but so am I.)

[Joe Chi Minh]

15. To think that those (unspeakables) sell their soul to pay for the garbage

you cited, as examples, while dozens of young men in Iraq, in the prime of their lives, from poor, economically-oppressed backgrounds, are losing their genitalia each month - for what? For those wealth junkies to send their kid to Princeton, etc., and the war racketeers Smedly-Butler warned about.

[closeupready]

24. Yep. That really is all its about.

For most of them. Stuff and domestics and toys.

[wyldwolf]

7. MF, why has Howard Dean allowed the DBC to remain in business?

Anywhere from $5,000 to $26,500 will allow a corporation to buy their way into the DNC.

[tbyg52]

10. Best investment there is.

Tens of thousands gets you millions. Hundreds of thousands gets you billions. It's obscene. They're not only buying our government, they're getting bargain-basement rates.

[wyldwolf]

17. I just want to see the spin

When MF discovers Howard Dean is soliciting corporate money by the millions, will the practice suddenly become acceptable?

[1776Forever]

16. Let me just say that if the next President gets in an craps on the middle class we may see a revolt!

It is getting rough out here and more and more people are loosing the Dream! It is going to be rough on any President that will forget who put them in there the next time! I hope enough people get out and vote and don't give up to the BIG BOYS!

"Too many of our leaders have made a devil's bargain with corporate and wealthy interests, saying 'I'll keep you in power if you keep me in power."

[L0oniX]

20. I am so wishing for a revolt and mass takeover of the US gov

It's our government, damn it all. Give it back to us right now because I know where you live and this is what I will do to you............

[madfloridian]

18. Greider: " the doctor stuck his chin out, and he got his head knocked off."

But he had some great ideas that the media never touched on at all. I was a little upset when Obama compared his campaign to Dean's saying his campaign was about more than the war. Dean's campaign was about far more than that.

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20040308/greider

"Dean's style was indeed "hot"--"angry," the reporters said--but they simply couldn't deal with his reflective side; it didn't fit the caricature.

Nor did they take much interest in concrete ideas, unless a rival accused him of heresy. Dean called for a labeling law for mutual funds--full disclosure on the fees they charge investors. He wanted a Fannie Mae for small business. And a national commission on how to restore democracy--no politicians allowed. He wanted to confront the concentration of oversized corporations and break up media conglomerates. In addition to full financial disclosure by corporations, Dean called for full social accounting: "Why shouldn't companies be accountable to investors and the public on other important matters like environmental standards and labor relations? Knowledge is power."

On political reform, he endorsed radical concepts like instant-runoff voting, which would enable third parties with ideas from either left or right to compete against Republicans and--good grief!--Democrats too. He called for a $100 tax credit for citizens who contribute to presidential campaigns--but available only to citizens on the bottom half of the income ladder. He wanted free airtime for "civic broadcasting" in election seasons--paid for by a spectrum fee charged to the broadcasters using our airwaves. These ideas and others perhaps sounded too fanciful, since neither party in Congress would have much enthusiasm for them. The dead hand of the past always feels threatened by a new guy with a different idea of what's possible.

OK, the doctor stuck his chin out, and he got his head knocked off. "Politics is a dirty business," as Hunter Thompson used to say."

[Dr.Phool]

22. My former campaign manager was on Bob Grahams staff in Iowa.

We had lunch together a couple of weeks ago. He told a Dean story from Iowa. He said that Dean preferred to be addressed as "Doctor", but he could also be addressed as "Governor". One day a reporter made the mistake of calling him "Mister Dean", and I guess he got a royal ass chewing from the good doctor. He said every reporter knew about the incident.

Also, in "Sneaking in to the Flying Circus" by Alexandra Pelosi, she said that all the candidates had bus loads of reporters traveling with them. When they would arrive at a event, Dean would pool the reporters and only allow a small number of them inside. This really pissed off the people left on the bus. So, I guess Howard did give them some incentive for revenge.

I supported Dean then, and I still do. Hopefully he's learned a lesson. Also, if you read Pelosi's book, you'll find that she has a really, really low opinion of John Edwards. I don't know what that's all about. And yes, she is Nancy's daughter.

[rainy]

23. We will have to make sure the media don't try to run Al Gore down again.

This time we will not let them tear our "great hope" apart.

[LostInAnomie]

25. He should have been president.

eom

[madfloridian]

26. My own thoughts:

Pact with the devil brings to mind cozying up to Murdoch.

[demoleft]

27. A bargain which is partly our leaders' problem in Italy too...

Leaders that had better not have phone dialogues and relations with banks and bankers, characters from the financial world and so on, nor be glad for a financial operation or outcome and prefer it to another turnout.
It's a matter of market balance and conditioning too. And a matter of credibility in the eyes of the people.

Everyone has a right to have a friend. A politician should suspend his friendship relations if they involve people engaged in corporations and finance.

Left leaders should concentrate on politics and social justice and not worry about the costs of politics. Fundraising is a real problem...

[NoFederales]

28. Dean was brutalized because his message was "on target", just as

the Republican party--my former party affiliation--was brutalized and hijacked by the neocons. Like Dean, I was always quick to strike at the stupidity, arrogance, and cronyism of politicians, to no avail. "Those" politicians (and their sycophants) are immune to criticisms, immovable to rational thinking. The political inertia of today's government has left me partyless and awed by the mess. I do not know if their is an outside-of-the-box solution anymore. The way Dean has been marginalized by attempting to organize grass-roots progressivism within the Democratic Party is distubing and frustrating--can a complacent Public really expect decent government? Can our "American" democracy be truly proactive for the people? Are we rolling downhill like a snowball headed for Hell?

NoFederales

[madfloridian]

29. Your former party and the Democrats...and my church....

were all basically hijacked and taken over by pretty much the same people. We did not know it was happening, not really aware until the Iraq war.

I felt like someone threw ice water in my face when my Southern Baptist church preached in support of the war and called us unpatriotic.

We know it now. However, as you can see at DU and other boards there are too many either in denial or having a similar agenda.

I am very worried. I don't think there will be time to effect change in the party before 08 politics take firm hold and most likely drag us even more to the right before it is over.

Some days I just despair.