I was listening to Dave @x22report last night and something he said completely resonated with me. He said:
I had not looked at the political process from this perverted point of view and it made so much sense. All of these talking heads that try to appear as upstanding leaders of our respective nations, states, towns and school boards are little more than sandwich board wearing propagandists, doing the bidding of their patrons. That's it.
It takes big money these days to get elected into high office. Those hard-earned campaign dollars have to come from somewhere. There aren't enough $5 contributions from the likes of Grandma Jones to keep a politician in office. Once an industry trade group has figured out which politicians sit on which committees, the lobbyist lets loose the campaign dollars. They have to be certain as to what legislation will be introduced and what will not.
A national politician has a cadre of aides and staffers that help them to write speeches, man the telephones, keep them on schedule and all of the litany of meetings and fundraisers they'll have to attend. So where do they come up with the time to create new legislation? For the most part, they don't. Legislation is handed to them by corporate lobbyists, promoting the interests of their employer, whether that be an NGO, a Corporation or a Trade Group.
The politician will then use their influential position on some committee to get the legislation pushed down the line and eventually put in front of the Congress. The lobbyist will then have to do some scoreboard watching and see where the votes are falling and potentially need to influence some more politicians who are playing hard to get. Once enough get on board with the new bill, it be brought to a vote. Then the process is repeated in the Senate and off to the President. It's actually pretty orderly in the end. You will keep you office if you bend to corporate will.
Do you think some hardworking politician dreamed up Obamacare, NAFTA, TTP, TTIP or any other technically advanced trade or policy legislation? Not a chance. Obamacare was written by the insurance companies for the insurance companies. Handed off to friendly politicians that were happy to go on camera and wax poetic about the merits of the bill that they've never read and the cycle continues.
The whole system in the U.S., and I'm certain, most nations is corrupted to the core. Industry regulating and legislating itself, via cut-out politicians, who go to bended knee when their pimp is in town, throwing around corporate money. It's seemingly backwards compared to how government should function, but greed and power tend to win out in the end. Just remember what Nancy Pelosi said about Obamacare when it was introduced:
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