Feral Cat of Freedom's Blog

This Is What Democracy Looks Like - Sometimes

I don’t spend much time on national electoral politics anymore, but some thoughts on Jhygirl’s post on 4 & 20 blackbirds regarding Franke Wilmer and her candidacy for our lone congressional seat here in Montana now held by Denny Rehberg:  http://4and20blackbirds.wordpress.com/2011/11/22/franke-wilmer-candidate-for-u-s-congress-speaks-on-the-super-committee-dysfunction/

Franke Wilmer is an intelligent and hard working person.  So I find it disappointing, yes, disappointing that she chose to answer the question on the Stupid Committee by addressing the  meme that the budget deficit is the big problem our nation faces.  No, OWS has managed valiantly to change the dumb ass deficit hawk misdirection into the correct discussion of corruption and crony capitalism that has turned our nation into a non-functioning wasteland.  And besides, the deficit cutting idea is just plain wrong.  Most recent debunking by Martin Wolf at the Financial Times:  http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/448bb4e0-15f2-11e1-a691-00144feabdc0.html#axzz1eOtxqRL7

Now I know she can’t offend Obama and Max, so she can’t say that the whole super committee was a set up–a set up to fail so that the automatic cuts kick in after the election, that is, if they aren’t repealed by the  next Congress.  She can’t say that it was set up to get Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid on the table i.e. to start the talk about “reforming” i.e. gutting them.

This is not about 12 dysfunctional people sitting in a room going over spreadsheets with green eye shades who were incapable of picking  out waste. That’s deflecting attention away from the rampant corruption of our elected officials and the basic tenet of republicanism that we submit to laws debated in an open deliberative fashion.  Deals behind closed doors are not anything we should submit too whether it’s health insurance or bank giveaways.  And changing the people in the room won’t change the system of “lobbyists” and “consultants” and “historians” in the revolving door between congress and corporate executive offices.

These times call for imagination and alternatives to the status quo not the same old same old finger pointing and the same old talking points like restoring “common sense” and bringing change to Washington.  Change will not happen in Washington.

Filed under: Politics | Tagged: Denny Rehberg, electoral politics, Franke Wilmer, Montana, Occupy Wall Street | 1 Comment »