REFORM OR PERISH

[cornermouse]

I think this article has several points that should be considered.

http://www.creators.com/opinion_show.cfm?columnsName=msh

The Haile Selassie Syndrome infects many Democratic officeholders who wrongly think of themselves as the insiders, the natural governing party. They are not. They are a depleted minority. But defeat can be wonderfully liberating. To compete, Democrats must see themselves for what they are and must become the Party of Reform, the relentless enemy of the status quo, of the Washington Republican establishment.

No better place to begin than heeding the reform words and deeds of the one Democrat who strikes genuine fear into the dark hearts of corporate malefactors, New York state Attorney General Eliot Spitzer. While the Bush administration dragged its Gucci loafers, Spitzer and his lawyers got mutual funds that had ripped off customers to pay more than $2.3 billion in fines and major Wall Street investment houses to pay $1.4 billion for swindling their customers, and broke up an illegal insurance cartel...

... In addition to economic reform, Democrats must embrace political reform. Congressional redistricting has regularly produced in the thoughtful judgment of political thinker Tom Mann "the pathologies associated with legislative redistricting -- incumbent protection, noncompetitive elections, partisan bias and polarization ..." He is right. Democrats must champion the real reform of independent redistricting commissions working under total transparency and committed to competitive electoral races...

[ztn]

1. Well said. That's my kinda party.

I hate degenerative status quo attitudes towards important matters. They breed apathy, complacency, low voter turnout, low voter awareness and finally corruption...which restarts the cycle til we can barely get half the country to vote and fewer to have a clue of the what the hell they're voting for.

The societies with the least social problems and best standards of living: Scandinavia, Holland, Switzerland and Luxembourg have the least political corruption, the most transparency and some of the best voter engagement. The results are no accident.