[Homestead] Politicians vesus voters
Gene GeRue
genegerue at ruralize.com
Thu Oct 2 15:29:57 EDT 2008
On Oct 2, 2008, at 1:19 PM, Akka Homestead wrote:
>
> I agree that those who voted for the [bailout] bill are going to be
> chastized come re-election time.
Probably not. Of those who vote, most vote for incumbents.
> IMO, it means either one of two things, either they are in the
> pocket of Wall Street with a lot of their own money on the line, OR,
> they are simply followers of Pelosi/Bush.
To become elected means raising a huge amount of money. To be
reelected means raising another huge amount of money. Incumbents,
depending on their voting records, receive lots of money from those
who can both afford the contributions and want to influence how
politicians act. A large number of such are Wall Street investment
firms, huge banks, huge legal firms, huge businesses.
Any political campaigner needs a huge amount of money to run a
successful campaign, the higher the office, the larger the sum. Most
people either can't afford to donate or are insufficiently motivated
to do so. The percentage of Americans who vote or not vote is evidence
of the level of interest versus apathy.
> Either reason is damning, I think. We need leadership. We need
> someone who is not afraid to go against the flow, to be unpopular
> for the sake of the country.
Such a person would likely last one term; the only chance for a second
term is if they had large personal resources and employed very
sophisticated (expensive) campaign managers. They need both huge
personal money and driving ambition to change the country. The Ross
Perot story is instructive.
In addition to sophisticated campaigns that persuade those susceptible
to clever manipulation and lies because of modest intellectual
capacity or naivete or--pick your own reason--earmarks are a way that
politicians get voters to vote for them. Such action is blatant, and
effective, pandering.
Whether PT Barnum or someone else first made the observation, it is
obvious that there is at least one sucker born every minute. Others
have wryly observed that such people never die.
Please vote against the incumbents.
>
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