Wow. [[updated)
by RenaRF
Just... Wow. I hadn't checked into Daily Kos since Saturday afternoon, and I return to rec list showdown, a clash of Titans about what we're here for, what we know to be "true", and what we should do about it.
I've read the expatriation diary, the first unauthorized "redefinition" of Daily Kos, the second authorized "redefinition" of Daily Kos, and I just thought - "Wow. That really misses the point and the problem."
But you know what? Both really miss an honest appraisal of the root cause of both of their issues [[a better country run by better Democrats and all the effort required to affect that outcome). They are taking divergent emotional and intellectual paths towards the same goal - yet both will be continually frustrated and turned away in pursuit of that goal because neither addresses what's really going on.
Money. Money is going on.
So here's how I see it. There are certain rules that law, the courts, and the American public have set forth to even give an individual a chance at affecting change. That individual may [[and likely), in their heart of hearts, have a solid set of personal ideals in which they believe strongly. When they undertake their first run for office, they carry those ideals with them, likely with the intent of stolidly pursuing policies and programs that underscore, amplify, and promote those ideals.
And then reality descends, articulated as follows:
1. It is rare to impossible to get elected without money.
2. Without money, it is rare to impossible to get your message out there sufficiently for a marginally engaged populace to make a choice.
"Them's the rules", as I am fond of saying. And they're the rules that have been laid down by the American people. They almost never elect someone who has no money and no ability to get their message out. It's the playing field upon which both teams are forced to play. Because having one's ideology is a wonderful thing - and deciding that that ideology can benefit other people is also a wonderful thing. But having zero chance of implementing that ideology because you can't ever get elected because you have no money [[see rules above) is NOT a wonderful thing.
This is a particularly frustrating course for Democrats in particular. Republicans are pretty above-board about which master they serve. I don't sense an awful lot of underlying moral conflict with the choices they have to make to get elected and then try to push their ideology. One serves the other, one follows the other. It's a much straighter line given "them's the rules" for Republicans. Not so for Democrats - because at our core and our heart, we ARE about the poor and the working class and unions and minorities of every stripe. We always have been - it runs through what we campaign on and the grand ideas we seek to implement once elected. But "them's the rules". And Democrats know that it's impossible to get elected without money and that without money, they can't get their message out there sufficiently for a marginally engaged populace to make an informed choice that best aligns with their needs, wants and hopes. Their moral dilemma in having to accept lobbyist and industry money is a much more difficult row to hoe given what they generally believe overall. But hoe it they do - to the wrath of the non-politician Democrats who see them "selling out". Yet to me, the choice, right now and given "them's the rules", is simple: It's better to get elected and try to affect some of the changes you think are necessary than to never get elected and be very unlikely to affect even tiny part os the changes you think are necessary. It's a shitty deal, most of all for us - the non-politicians. But it's a deal I can understand them taking, even with pure intentions.
So my assertion is simple: The only way you accomplish buhdydharma's and Kestral9000's and countless other Kossacks' goals [[even allowing for the divergent paths to those goals) is by changing the rules.
Yet - searching popular tags for either "Campaign Finance Reform" or "CFR" yields - wait for it - ZERO popular tags. Not one for either of those terms. Ditto for "Campaign Finance". Searching All tags gives this:
Total diaries [[ever) with tag "Campaign Finance" - 778
Total diaries [[ever) with tag "Campaign Finance Reform" - 385
Total diaries [[ever) with tag "CFR" - 63
Contrast that to this:
Total diaries [[ever) with tag "Sarah Palin" - 12,722
Total diaries [[ever) with tag "Tea Party" - 2,412
Total diaries [[ever) with tag "Rush Limbaugh" - 2,816
Total diaries [[ever) with tag "Glenn Beck" - 2,403
Total diaries [[ever) with tag "Bill O'Reilly" - 2,367
ALL campaign finance tagged diaries, combined, comes to only slightly more than HALF of all Bill O'Reilly tagged diaries. Am I saying that talking about Sarah Palin, the teabaggers, Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck and Bill O'Reilly is not a fit discussion for Daily Kos? Of course not. But in context, it should be clear that the attention paid to the root cause of the problem that we are currently ALL lamenting in our different ways is infinitesimal compared to the attention paid to these other gasbags. The gasbags need to be held to account for their lies, no doubt - but it misses this key point:
With real campaign finance reform, the ability of the gasbags to co-opt the message and spread lies would be greatly reduced.
Exclamation point. And that's only a tiny part of why campaign finance reform should matter.
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