Katrina vanden Heuvel: Governor for sale

from the WaPo:




By Katrina vanden Heuvel, Published: August 23


There’s a saying in Texas when someone has the swagger of success without the accomplishments to back it up: He’s all hat and no cattle. Put another way: he’s acting like Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R).

Perry has been elected governor three times and has proclaimed his state a model worth replicating at the national level. Yet Texas has the highest number of residents without health insurance in the nation, among the worst-ranked food stamp programs, one of the highest child poverty rates, the lowest percentage of residents with a high school diploma , and one of the highest teenage birth rates . These are stats that deserve swears, not swagger.

Texas’s political system is also as brazenly capable of corruption by money and special interests as that in Washington, and unabashedly so.

Long before the Supreme Court decision in Citizens United allowed unlimited contributions to begin flowing into national super PACs, Texas had some of the most lax campaign finance laws anywhere. At the state level, there are no limits on the amount of money individuals can contribute to candidates, allowing wealthy donors to directly bankroll campaigns. In such an environment, Rick Perry didn’t just survive, he flourished. He didn’t just embrace the system, he shattered records with it, raising more than anyone in Texas history. Indeed, for as long as Perry has been governor, the governor’s mansion has been ostensibly for sale. ............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/governor-for-sale/2011/08/23/gIQAGC3vYJ_story.html

1) Smart people have not been able to solve America's problems, so it's time to let stupid people have a go at them.

2) Perry has had more executions than any previous governor, so policies that will kill lots of people will present no problem.

3) Perry is driven by ideology, so programs that don't work and waste lots of taxpayer money will be no problem either.

Lax campaign finance rules do appear to facilitate the sale of government at a wholesale level. My concern is that no matter what happens with pArry and his campaign the entire country regardless of who is elected will resemble Texas on steroids.

Whomever wins will be completely owned by money, money like we have never seen before in politics and only the "good ones" (the ones that stay bought) will flourish in such an environment.
We are soon to be ruled entirely by the principle of the highest bidder, parties will just be like the brand of cola you like - Coke or Pepsi?

It is close to being completely owned by a privileged few now, from 2012 on we will sprint towards fascism at a rate that will make Germany's transformation look slow and tedious.

Goddess save us all.

He'd wipe his ass with the flag and then claim it was an inspiration from gawd.

The password is: ASSHOLE