A lifelong Republican weighs in on the question of what ails the Democrats—and the nation.
Why they lost
By
Jack E. Lohman
I am a lifelong Republican who has voted for George W. Bush for president twice. (I saw little difference between him and Kerry on most of the important issues, but favored Bush on matters of national security.) Nonetheless, I would like to see a strong competitive party -- one with guts -- hold the GOP in check.
As the Democrats devour each other and wonder why the House, Senate and presidency were out of reach in 2004, they do not seem to understand that they are no longer the party that is for the people and against the special interests. To most voters, the Democrats are now just “one of them.”
The Dems take hefty sums of money from the same fat cats that give to the Republicans, so they can no longer criticize the GOP for favoring the wealthy. They have lost leverage on this critical issue as Big Business found their human weaknesses: cash and power.
We know it by the benign name of “campaign finance reform,” and it is often a secondary issue to many. But it is more accurately described as Corrupt Political Reform, and it should be at the top of everybody’s list. It transcends virtually every issue: Fix this and you will have fixed virtually everything else.
A case in point is the battle to prohibit illegal aliens from getting state driver’s licenses. While 90 percent of the public favors prohibiting the issuance of driver’s licenses to illegal aliens, those who really count -- the fat cats who fund the elections -- do not.
Follow the money! The people who won this battle are the corporate CEO’s who give the big bucks to political campaigns. They prefer lax border control to national security because allowing millions of illegal aliens into the country drives wages down and CEO salaries ups. And these CEO’s are willing to share their profits with the politicians who made it all possible. Though Wisconsin Congressman James Sensenbrenner knows this, he declined to admit it on national TV because the cash flow helps the GOP retain power and he his committee chair.
We are all hurt by this corrupt political system. That it has penetrated national security is unconscionable, but even beyond that it threatens our very democracy. Campaign contributions have brought wealth to people who otherwise would not have gotten it on their own. Lax corporate controls and shareholder protection have been bought and paid for by the Kenneth Lays of the world. The wage gap has widened from 40-to-1 in 1982 to 400-to-1 today, and the percent of taxes coming from citizens has increased while corporate taxes have decreased dramatically. Some highly profitable corporations pay no taxes at all.
Though John Kerry criticized the tax cuts, not once did he admit that they were bought and paid for with contributions to both parties -- and his side, too, voted for the cuts. Politicians are gutting the U.S. treasury and the security of future generations, and the Democrats are helping to stash the booty along with the Republicans. Not once during the campaign did Kerry mention his own Senate proposal for full public funding of campaigns -- a bill designed to get these fat cats out of taxpayers’ pockets -- because his party is now also wallowing in the corporate pie.
The size of the federal government grew by more than 10 percent under President George W. Bush, but where were the Dems when Senate filibusters could have curbed his extravagances? Or when they passed the recent law that included $15.8 billion of local pork projects? They were at fundraisers!
Our current electoral system virtually demands these conflicts of interest. If the Dems want to return to relevance they must -- over the next two years and starting today -- expose our corrupt political system for what it is. They must fight against graft and quit being part of it; and perhaps then voters will return to their party. In any other country we would call our system corrupt; in America we call it freedom of speech.
Though Jesse Ventura turned out to be a flake, he resonated with the public and its desire to clean up the moneyed political system. Democratic leaders must learn from that, but to be effective they must start with clean hands. The people know all too well that the system is corrupt, and until the Dems acknowledge it and campaign for an immediate cleanup, they will remain the minority party.
If politicians are to be beholden to those who fund their elections, let it be to the public. For $10 per year at the federal level (and $5 at the state level) we could have full public funding of political campaigns. Only then will we see balanced budgets, reasonable government spending and a fair tax system. And we would eliminate thousands of dollars per taxpayer per year in special interest giveaways. That is a bargain at a hundred times the price.
December 21, 2004
post a letter about this article »
read letters on this article (0)
Jack Lohman is a retired business owner who lives in Colgate. He is the founder of MoneyedPoliticians.net and the author of the book “Politicians: Owned and Operated by Corporate America.”
