Bottom line: we need elected leaders to be more afraid of being voted out of office than they are afraid of being advertised out of office. As long as Congress measures the electoral calculus in dollar signs instead of votes, the narrow agendas of international corporations, with their high dollar campaign donations, their lobbying firms, and their "super PAC's" will remain the most influential force shaping our nation's future.
I can't help but speculate that recent votes by Congressional Republicans are related to the Supreme Court's "Citizens United" decision, allowing multi-national corporations to spend unlimited, anonymous money to influence our elections. Little else, I feel, could explain acts in Congress that protected tax-payer funded subsidies for multi-national oil companies, and saw all but nine Republicans lash themselves to a wildly unpopular "Ryan" budget that turns Medicare into a voucher program with no limits on health care costs for seniors.
Two days before the New York-26 special election, Rep. Paul Ryan told David Gregory on Meet the Press, that the views of the American people are not the concern to a true leader. "Leaders change polls," Ryan said, after scoffing at the fact that more than 80% of Americans oppose the plan that bares his name.
Leaders change polls? What do you suppose gave him the confidence to predict such a thing? Could it be "leadership spending?"
And what do America's leadership spenders — like Karl Rove's American Crossroads and the 16 corporations that control the U.S. Chamber of Commerce — take away from the race in upstate New York, in which a Democrat won a deep red Republican district for the first time since the Civil Rights era despite a million dollars in leadership spending? Should they conclude that the American people have minds of their own and aren't easily "led" into changing them? Or, should they conclude that they didn't quite spend enough?
Americans, let's beware of politicians and political operatives who celebrate spending designed to confuse, polorize, and alienate us in order to preserve their own power — while at the same time railing against spending that creates jobs, bolsters our economy, and protects our quality of life.
Listen to an Eric Byler interview on The Shannon Files radio program.
Below are two professional wreslting videos that speak to the anology I make in the speech above re. news entertainment, reality TV, and professional wrestling:
Donald Trump is one of the few performers who has been involved in politics, political entertainment, Reality TV, and professional wrestling:
This horrific piece of video is the opening salvo for the pro-wrestling narrative that made the biggest impression on me as a child. Thanks to YouTube, I recently watched it for the second time as an adult (and it was just as horrifying)...
