The Republicans are masters at the dark arts of undermining America's inconvenient democracy. Today they're going far beyond the mundane tactics of gerrymandering and voter suppression although both are still flourishing.
In their unceasing quest to transform America into a one-party state, the GOP is getting no end of help from their corporate sponsors.
Former Wisconsin senator and partner with the late John McCain in the last desperate but failed attempt to implement campaign finance reform, Russ Feingold penned a Guardian op-ed yesterday describing how "Republicans are undermining democracy state by state." They're throwing out the rule books, flouting democratic tradition and convention, no matter what anyone says.
This is not how democracy works, and these maneuvers in Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio and North Carolina are not just power grabs. They are deliberate efforts to undermine democracy and our faith in it. And these efforts are getting more brazen and desperate every year.The infamous Koch brothers, Helmut and Gunter, are still at it, as ever. Only now they're spreading their filthy lucre into Britain. George Monbiot describes how the Brothers Sinister are fueling the hard right cause in the UK.
Everything from gerrymandering to attempts at voter suppression have been long-term projects of the monied interests. But, like the white supremacists’ public actions and the attacks on the media in the age of Trump, Republicans making their power grabs around the country are particularly emboldened right now. The lame-duck session concept isn’t new either – it has just being taken to new extremes. Congress has used lame-duck sessions repeatedly for work that should have been conducted during the regular session. North Carolina Republicans showed Wisconsin Republicans how to mess with democracy back in December of 2016 when they successfully diminished the powers of the incoming Democratic governor Pat McCrory. A lame-duck session should only be for emergency measures. Too many people voting is not an emergency.
Meanwhile TruthDig brings word from Reps.-elect Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) about how congressional freshmen are getting tuned up by corporate forces before they're even sworn into office.
...contrary to the ideologically neutral advertising—the private conference featured a heavy dose of speeches by corporate CEOs and completely shut out organized labor and members of the progressive community.
“Our ‘bipartisan’ congressional orientation is co-hosted by a corporate lobbyist group,” Ocasio-Cortez noted, likely referring to the Koch-funded American Enterprise Institute, which is co-sponsoring the event. “Other members have quietly expressed to me their concern that this wasn’t told to us in advance. Lobbyists are here. Goldman Sachs is here. Where’s labor? Activists? Frontline community leaders?”American democracy is on the ropes and, this time, it can't be blamed on the Russians. This time the country is being subverted from within by the GOP, decidedly not "the party of Lincoln" any longer.
2 comments:
.. we had our chance Mound. Back when the Harper Party and the Harper Government realized we were ripe for the picking. The facts are clear. There was saturation level Electoral Fraud perpetrated (malic and aforethought) in a general election. Canada fumbled its way.. or should I say we fumbled away our chance to nail the dirty politicians.
The infamous Conservative voter database was shared.. and utilzed to target the unsuspecting electorate. And when the Mounties who 'always get their man' looked into 'the hijinks' as mainstream media described the massive fraud.. they folded like wet toilet paper before Arthur Hamilton, Jenni Byrne, Nigel Wright.. Michael Sona was the sacrificial goat.. and as Andrew Scheer might say today.. he made excellent goat jerky.
The guy with the red goatee .. who was he ? Parked in a backroom of Julian Fantino's campaign headquarters.. sharing the room with Stephen Lecce - flown in from the Harper PMO. Seriously, Mound.. we never got the red goatee guy's name. Lecce sakd he was a gee whiz genius datawank with some serious hardware. That thuggie droog was in my territory. That's right ! As the crow flies - from Vaughn - Richmond Hill to Guelph, Ontario.. is what ? 40 miles ? Money was pouring into the Fantino office, so much so that they sere 'sharing' the loot with other more needy ridings. Ah, the old In/Out eh ..
Anyway.. now we know how depraved, how intense.. the partisan committment is.. hell, man.. its essentially an evangelical mission from on high.. transmitted via septic tanks systems. I ask again, in all seriousness.. how do we dismantle such political parties ? How soon ? Our public servants are studying North Carolina, Georgia, the White House.. to learn how even a fraudulent commercial realtor, ol Bone Spurs.. can be saluted by Marines !
In Canada our public servants buy us a 60 year old pipeline 'to tidewater' and tell us its 'Nation Building' - elected public servants whip out their meagre weasel dick on social media. others stay in hotels across the river from Ottawa with attached casinos.. our appointed or annointed Senators shriek in our general direction via Twitter.. what's a po boy from Saskatchewan to think ? Prince Kenney of Alberta awaits his coronation.. and various n sundry political parties are scheming how to manipulate the polls via mainstream media..
Who are the 'deplorables' ?? We are if we roll over to such fuckery ..
Point well taken, Sal. In matters of federal politics I lost trust in the RCMP long ago. At least as far back as Zaccardelli when he infamously meddled in the election to give Harper the boost he needed to oust Martin.
Bob Paulson continued that tradition with his contortions in the Duffy file. There he twisted all theories of law to contrive the "immaculate bribe" offence and slap Duffy with no fewer than 37 charges. This novel construct of criminal law was for one purpose - to take Nigel Wright and Stephen Harper off the hook. There was no other reason for it. That much was noted by Justice Vaillancourt when, in dismissing every charge, he noted that crimes had been committed but that the criminals were not before him.
What's that line about how the fish rots from the head down?
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