Comments

  1. robro says

    Sounds like someone’s breaking kayfabe. I especially like he’s emphasis that it’s “both parties.”

  3. David Wilford says

    Artor @ 2:

    Nah. The pilot of Wellstone’s plane was so intent on looking for the airport in poor conditions that he forgot to fly the damn plane, and let it slow down to the point where it lost altitude, hit the trees, and crashed.

  4. says

    Wellstone begins this speech by commenting on the fact that wealthy donors have so much say in politics that they are subverting democracy, (my summary, not his exact words). This kind of corruption may soon get worse. Here’s a cross post from the Lounge:

    Mitch McConnell’s first actions as leader of the Senate, his top priority, will be to allow rich donors to give more money to political candidates.

    If McConnell gets what he wants, rich donors who hit the $5,200 [per candidate] limit could simply route further donations to candidates by giving to political party committees—which may accept far larger donations and could work directly with the candidates to ensure the money was spent as the donors intended. “The practical effort here is to repeal the limits,” Wertheimer says.

    McConnell has a broader plan here. Politico recently noted that McConnell is seeking to direct more big money to political parties, as opposed to outside groups such as super-PACs that in theory must remain independent of candidates.

    http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2014/12/harry-reid-mitch-mcconnell-budget-bill-rider-campaign-finance

  5. F.O. says

    This is not systemic. This is *institutionalized* corruption.

    What’s the point of voting if political candidates and officers are expected to receive “donations”?

  6. lorn says

    In a capitalist nation there is only one virtue, having money, and only one sin, not having money. A capitalist democracy means one-dollar-one-vote. That isn’t corruption. It is a different paradigm.

  7. Muz says

    At a certain point he’s talking about the mothers and grandmothers and poor people in talks about the health care bill and others and asking “Where were the lobbyists representing them?”. I had to chuckle a bit and said “That’s supposed to be you dude”.
    It’s flip and entirely beside his point, but I wager lots of people across the floor and on his side would say that “I am the representative of the ordinary people and I’m doing a great job because all these powerful lobbies who make a difference to my constituency and nation want to talk to me (and give me money)” and thus dismiss this as a problem.

    So while saying this is great a related problem seems sometimes to be a self satisfied political class and much more fundamental change needs to be affected somehow.