If you want to know your chances of having your political dreams become a reality, ask yourself this: How much money have you given to your politicians lately? If, like me, the answer is “zero,” well, to paraphrase a GMD-front-pager: sit down, shut up and enjoy the show. And if you just gave a little, enjoy the show from the back of the line.
Ah, but if you’re lucky enough to “max out” with your political contributions, you don’t just get to enjoy the show, you get to run it.
Right now in Vermont, political pundits are not-so-hard at work reporting on the lowest common denominator of politics: The money. And almost all of the coverage goes something like this: He’s got more. She’s got more. He’s got less. She’s got less.
Well, to be fair, you also have sleepy folks like Eric Davis, Chris Graff and Kristen Carlson serving us up “analysis” like this: “Having more money means being able to buy more things.” Wow. Thanks.
But there’s almost no effort put into shining a spotlight on the insidious nature of all this money (and attention) being put into this unseemly side of politics. There’s very little attempt to uncover the obvious favors and policy bending done for the donors by the politicians. Nor, with the exception of Totten and the News Guy, is there a discussion about Vermont’s embarrassingly lax campaign finance laws.
Isn’t this the time to be putting these office-seekers on the hot seat with regards to their positions on issues like campaign finance reform? And, in the case of a gubernatorial election field filled with lifetime politicians, shouldn’t we be asking them why they’ve dithered, dathered and/or simply failed to address this most important issue in their years of public service?
As the system stands now, we – the people – should interpret headlines about Dubie raising a million dollars and his Democratic challengers raising a million and a half dollars as follows: Dubie Owes $1 million in Favors, Dems Owe $1.5 Million in Favors. Because that – sadly – is the reality in today’s politics. Yes, even in Vermont.
The duplicitous nature of the money-in-politics game is best exemplified by the illogical partisan nonsense spewed by the cheerleaders of the two-party duopoly. It goes like this: Your money is bad, but our money is good. And, sadly, this works to both fuel the game further and, perhaps worse, continue to distract from the real issues that need to be addressed.
Notice, for example, that regulars at this site have understandably denigrated Brian Dubie for having contributors that may have “dealings with the State” (um, who doesn’t?) but then turn around and cheer their candidates’ money gathering as a mere “show of support.” Frankly, it’s juvenile.
For a sobering reminder of what the impact of money in politics is, take a minute to watch the Bill Moyers video below. And then help start to change the dialog, beginning with a renewed and centrally-focused commitment to the issues, only the issues, and nothing but the issues. Sure, money is included in that – but only in the negative.