Wednesday, January 6, 2010
Being a US Senator or Congressperson
Senator Dodd announced that he is retiring. Praise God! Here's to hoping that many more will follow suit in the Senate and House, both Democrats and Republicans. We also need to pass a law that prohibits them from ever lobbying Congress with hefty corporate fees against the interest of the American people. They need to go fishing or get another career altogether. Many of them seem puckered out anyway. Just looking at them makes me tired and knowing that they will work behind the scene against our interests angers me.
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10 comments:
RIGHT ON!
SAY THAT!
I see it as Dodd doing a good thing. He wants a democrat to win.
Again, I really believe its not them its us.
Here is a David Brooks Column.
The money is bad, but we are completely irrational.
The money would mean much less if we the people thought through what is actually happening.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/05/opinion/05brooks.html
Zorro - That's one way to look at it. Another way is that Dodd could not possibly win against a Democratic rival. It is believed that he would have been challenged. These guys rarely just give up anything. I actually think that it is ALL of us, not us against them or vice verse. I agree that many of us are irrational. But a lot of this is born out of mistrust and misstatements. Thanks for the article. I'll check it out.
Judith,
I recall from a post earlier this year you "wished" this very thing would happen! Along with several others as I remember. I thought I heard that Sen Dorgan from South Dakota was avoiding running for re-election as well. Two down...533 to go!
I did a post the other day on Jeffery Abelson who is a self proclaimed "civic apathy buster" who has written a terrific article titled " Democracy 3.0".He observed "Survey after major survey tell the tale: the vast majority of Americans are deeply and willfully uninformed about the big issues that shape all our lives and/or disengaged from participating in political problem-solving in any meaningful way." To me he is completely on point.
Change...real change...will begin with electoral reform. It's long overdue and sorely needed for sure. Maybe someday!
Dave - I do not know Jeffery Abelson, but I largely agree with his point. Regarding Senator Dorgan, I really do not know his politics so I can't speak to them. But as you well know, I am for term limits and campaign finance reform.
"Regarding Senator Dorgan, I really do not know his politics so I can't speak to them. But as you well know, I am for term limits and campaign finance reform."
In 1999, Dorgan voted against the deregulation that got us into this mess.
I wish he would stay around., but he probaly sees the writing on the wall.
I didn't know that, Zorro. Haven't gotten to the Brooks article yet. It's been a very busy few days. But I'll get to it and probably have something to say about it. Thanks.
I too would like to see term limits in Congress along with campaign finance reform. Our elected representatives long ago stopped representing those who put them in office, and most people don’t seem to care all that much.
I read Zorro’s recommended David Brooks article and found it very interesting. I also read Arianna Huffington’s post on the new book by Janine Wedel, “Shadow Elite” (Arianna’s links are switched with her Sleep post). If we follow these two lines of thinking, it may no longer be Democrat vs. Republican, but we may be looking at the “Shadow Elite” vs. the “Tea Party.”
This may be a very interesting decade we just entered.
Bob - I have read the Brooks article and will soon post on it. I have not as of yet read Arianna's piece. Thanks for the mention. It will certainly be an interesting decade. I trust ignorance, hatred and fear will not prevail. We have to actually see to it that they won't.
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