2016 Postmortem

JDPriestly

(57,936 posts) Wed Oct 21, 2015, 03:07 PM Oct 2015

When all is said and done, is our system really all that corrupt?

Hillary claims she can "get things done."

What does that mean in Congress?

From 2005:

It was a fairy-tale political season for George W. Bush, and it seemed like no one in the world noticed. Amid bombs in London, bloodshed in Iraq, a missing blonde in Aruba and a scandal curling up on the doorstep of Karl Rove, Bush's Republican Party quietly celebrated a massacre on Capitol Hill. Two of the most long-awaited legislative wet dreams of the Washington Insiders Club – an energy bill and a much-delayed highway bill – breezed into law. One mildly nervous evening was all it took to pass through the House the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA), for years now a primary strategic focus of the battle-in-Seattle activist scene. And accompanied by scarcely a whimper from the Democratic opposition, a second version of the notorious USA Patriot Act passed triumphantly through both houses of Congress, with most of the law being made permanent this time.

Bush's summer bills were extraordinary pieces of legislation, broad in scope, transparently brazen and audaciously indulgent. They gave an energy industry drowning in the most obscene profits in its history billions of dollars in subsidies and tax breaks, including $2.9 billion for the coal industry. The highway bill set new standards for monstrous and indefensibly wasteful spending, with Congress allocating $100,000 for a single traffic light in Canoga Park, California, and $223 million for the construction of a bridge linking the mainland an Alaskan island with a population of just fifty.

It was a veritable bonfire of public money, and it raged with all the brilliance of an Alabama book-burning. And what fueled it all were the little details you never heard about. The energy bill alone was 1,724 pages long. By the time the newspapers reduced this Tolstoyan monster to the size of a single headline announcing its passage, only a very few Americans understood that it was an ambitious giveaway to energy interests But the drama of the legislative process is never in the broad strokes but in the bloody skirmishes and power plays that happen behind the scenes.

To understand the breadth of Bush's summer sweep, you had to watch the hand-fighting at close range. You had to watch opposition gambits die slow deaths in afternoon committee hearings, listen as members fell on their swords in exchange for favors and be there to see hordes of lobbyists rush in to reverse key votes at the last minute. All of these things I did – with the help of a tour guide.

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/inside-the-horror-show-that-is-congress-20050825

A day in the life of Bernie Sanders. How the game is played, won and lost.

It's pretty sick. Enjoy.

17 replies

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Highlight:

When all is said and done, is our system really all that corrupt? (Original Post) JDPriestly Oct 2015 OP

What worries me is what, exactly, would Hillary get done. djean111 Oct 2015 #1

Give her a Democratic Senate and she'll MineralMan Oct 2015 #3

Why do you think that? Everything you're listing is the exact opposite of what DanTex Oct 2015 #4

I have learned to dismiss campaign blather and look at past performance and records. djean111 Oct 2015 #5

I share your opinion because history is a great teacher. nt. Juicy_Bellows Oct 2015 #6

What about her past performance makes you think she'll privatize SS? DanTex Oct 2015 #14

That's your wishful interpretation of her vague comments on those issues. JDPriestly Oct 2015 #13

Great post. Thank you. n/t djean111 Oct 2015 #15

Hillary represents the billionaire class. It's like shareholders over employees. JRLeft Oct 2015 #10

yep. What's half way between Hillary and Paul Ryan? Doctor_J Oct 2015 #11

Very good read. Thank you for posting. It is pretty sick and depressing. Wish all Americans think Oct 2015 #2

This should be reqyired reading -- Especially for those who claim Sanders has done nothing Armstead Oct 2015 #7

The hillarians have a few things in common with Fox nation Doctor_J Oct 2015 #12

At the start of the healthcare reform process, Maedhros Oct 2015 #8

Good point. JDPriestly Oct 2015 #9

Who carries water for the oligarchs and who fights for the average US citizen? mhatrw Oct 2015 #16

We know Hillary represents the oligarchs. JRLeft Oct 2015 #17

djean111

(14,255 posts)

1. What worries me is what, exactly, would Hillary get done.

Reply to JDPriestly (Original post)

Wed Oct 21, 2015, 03:20 PM

Oct 2015

Not much that I would agree with, methinks. But things the GOP wanted, and/or the Third Way wants.
I believe we would see partial privatization of Social Security, at a minimum. More money for the hedge fund managers and Wall Street to wallow in.

MineralMan

(146,262 posts)

3. Give her a Democratic Senate and she'll

Reply to djean111 (Reply #1)

Wed Oct 21, 2015, 03:27 PM

Oct 2015

get some things accomplished. Give her the House in 2020 and step aside to watch the progress. That's what we can do for her to help her succeed. That's why I'll be putting my energy into GOTV.

DanTex

(20,709 posts)

4. Why do you think that? Everything you're listing is the exact opposite of what

Reply to djean111 (Reply #1)

Wed Oct 21, 2015, 03:27 PM

Oct 2015

she stands for. Privatizing SS? No, she wants to protect and expand. More money for hedge funds? No, she wants to close the carried interest tax loophole and crack down on shadow banking of which hedge funds are a big part.

djean111

(14,255 posts)

5. I have learned to dismiss campaign blather and look at past performance and records.

Reply to DanTex (Reply #4)

Wed Oct 21, 2015, 03:30 PM

Oct 2015

And I have been told right here at DU that of course a candidate has to say stuff they don't really mean in order to win.
So - that's my opinion. You have yours, mine is different, that's all.

Juicy_Bellows

(2,427 posts)

6. I share your opinion because history is a great teacher. nt.

Reply to djean111 (Reply #5)

Wed Oct 21, 2015, 03:35 PM

Oct 2015

DanTex

(20,709 posts)

14. What about her past performance makes you think she'll privatize SS?

Reply to djean111 (Reply #5)

Wed Oct 21, 2015, 04:07 PM

Oct 2015

JDPriestly

(57,936 posts)

13. That's your wishful interpretation of her vague comments on those issues.

Reply to DanTex (Reply #4)

Wed Oct 21, 2015, 04:01 PM

Oct 2015

Please give me a link to her plan for Social Security in which she states that under no circumstances will she privatize it.

Give me a link for her plan to protect and expand Social Security.

She does want to close the carried interest tax loophole and crack down on shadow banking.

How much of a tax break is she going to give hedge funds in exchange for closing the carried interest tax loophole and for cracking down on shadow banking?

Hillary thinks in terms of making deeals with powerful people.
That won't work.

We the people have to make these changes.

That is what Bernie Sanders understands and Hillary does not.

A major difference between Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton is that her idea is that she will go to the White House and make deals for us. Obama tried that and failed. It doesn't work.

Bernie's idea is that he goes to the White House and calls on us to pressure our members of Congress to pass legislation in our interest and not in the interest of those with money.

Read this. Read all of it. This is how corrupt our system is. We cannot survive as a country with this kind of corruption in Congress.

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/inside-the-horror-show-that-is-congress-20050825

It is heartbreaking. I understand how appealing Hillary's approach sounds, but it won't work because the premise of her candidacy is working within that corruption.

Whether she wants to or not, Hillary will compromise Social Security because that is what she understands to be the way to do business in D.C.

Hillary represents sheer corruption, which is not to say she is a bad person. It's just her view of politics. It's the status quo, and that is what she stands for.

Of course, if that is what the American people want, this is the year we make our choice.

I'm choosing change and Bernie Sanders.

I'm choosing to end Citizens United and the corruption.

djean111

(14,255 posts)

15. Great post. Thank you. n/t

Reply to JDPriestly (Reply #13)

Wed Oct 21, 2015, 05:37 PM

Oct 2015

JRLeft

(7,010 posts)

10. Hillary represents the billionaire class. It's like shareholders over employees.

Reply to djean111 (Reply #1)

Wed Oct 21, 2015, 03:52 PM

Oct 2015

Last edited Wed Oct 21, 2015, 06:44 PM - Edit history (1)

Doctor_J

(36,392 posts)

11. yep. What's half way between Hillary and Paul Ryan?

Reply to djean111 (Reply #1)

Wed Oct 21, 2015, 03:58 PM

Oct 2015

Can't even imagine.

think

(11,641 posts)

2. Very good read. Thank you for posting. It is pretty sick and depressing. Wish all Americans

Reply to JDPriestly (Original post)

Wed Oct 21, 2015, 03:24 PM

Oct 2015

could read what goes on in congress. Most would be livid....

Armstead

(47,803 posts)

7. This should be reqyired reading -- Especially for those who claim Sanders has done nothing

Reply to JDPriestly (Original post)

Wed Oct 21, 2015, 03:37 PM

Oct 2015

I had no way of knowing that Sanders would be a perfect subject for another, more compelling reason. In the first few weeks of my stay in Washington, Sanders introduced and passed, against very long odds, three important amendment. A fourth very nearly made it and would have passed had it gone to a vote. During this time, Sanders took on powerful adversaries, including Lockheed Martin, Westinghouse, the Export-Import Bank and the Bush administration. And by using the basic tools of democracy – floor votes on clearly posed questions, with the aid of painstakingly built coalitions of allies from both sides of the aisle – he, a lone Independent, beat them all.

It was an impressive run, with some in his office calling it the best winning streak of his career. Except for one thing.

By my last week in Washington, all of his victories had been rolled back, each carefully nurtured amendment perishing in the grossly corrupt and absurd vortex of political dysfunction that is today's U. S. Congress. What began as a tale of political valor ended as a grotesque object lesson in the ugly realities of American politics – the pitfalls of digging for hope in a shit mountain.

Sanders, to his credit, was still glad that I had come. "It's good that you saw this," he said. "People need to know."

Doctor_J

(36,392 posts)

12. The hillarians have a few things in common with Fox nation

Reply to Armstead (Reply #7)

Wed Oct 21, 2015, 04:01 PM

Oct 2015

Someone says, "Sanders has never passed a bill", and pretty soon it's common knowledge in clintonland.

Maedhros

(10,007 posts)

8. At the start of the healthcare reform process,

Reply to JDPriestly (Original post)

Wed Oct 21, 2015, 03:38 PM

Oct 2015

70+% of Americans were in favor of a single-payer system.

Single Payer was not even mentioned in the discussion, and the public option was nixed before the process even began.

Congress won't even talk about an issue that 70+% of Americans support. How much more corrupt can it get?