South fork of Chester Creek runs through the UAA campus.
Goose Lake was telling the sky, Backacha.
And even though the sun was getting down low on the horizon, the amanita mascara were brightening up the groundscape everywhere.
And this morning when I took the kitchen scraps up to the compost, I picked my morning raspberries.
But I am still thinking about Dark Money. It's not that I didn't know the basics - how Citizens United has made it possible for large corporations to invisibly support candidates with tons of unmarked campaign dollars - but the details of the movie's example of stealing seats in the Montana legislature is still disgusting.
I'm not sure how many hurdles would have to be overcome, but what's bothered me about politicians getting to office through various undemocratic shenanigans is that no one really gets punished. Laws that get passed by such politicians stay passed, benefiting their shadowy supporters and screwing everyone else. (OK, the guy in the movie got fined about $60,000, but I doubt his supporters didn't help him out there. He didn't resign, though his term was up shortly.)
Besides murky campaign help, I include gerrymandering as well. Today's ADN had a Washington Post article about how a federal appeals court had found - once again - that North Carolina had illegally gerrymandered the state so that while Republicans had 53% of the vote they got 77% of the state's delegation to the US House.
“I think electing Republicans is better than electing Democrats,” said Rep. David Lewis, a Republican member of the North Carolina General Assembly, addressing fellow legislators when they passed the plan in 2016. “So I drew this map to help foster what I think is better for the country.”To say this out loud, in public, shows that he knows there's nobody who's likely to hold him accountable.
He added: “I propose that we draw the maps to give a partisan advantage to 10 Republicans and three Democrats because I do not believe it’s possible to draw a map with 11 Republicans and two Democrats.”
At least the judges understood that the Republicans had essentially stolen that last three elections and weren't inclined to let this next election go as is - despite how late it is in the election cycle. After all, it's late because the Republicans kept appealing the decision and making more mischief.
"He said the court was leaning against giving the North Carolina legislature another chance to draw the congressional districts.This sort of stuff is a threat to the whole idea of democracy. The movie made it clear how corporations can set up shell organizations to hide money and then spend tons of money on last minute ads that lie about and smear their anointed candidate's opponent. And once they have them elected, the movie narrator said, there's no longer even the need to lobby, because they own that official.
“We continue to lament that North Carolina voters now have been deprived of a constitutional congressional districting plan — and, therefore, constitutional representation in Congress — for six years and three election cycles,” Wynn wrote. “To the extent allowing the General Assembly another opportunity to draw a remedial plan would further delay electing representatives under a constitutional districting plan, that delay weighs heavily against giving the General Assembly another such opportunity.”
I don't think removal from office, prison terms, even nullification of ill-gained legislation are too harsh a punishment for the both the corporate manipulators and their elected stooges. And people like Rep. David Lewis. These are domestic (well not all the corporate funders are necessarily domestic) terrorists, taking over our democracy.
Have some fresh raspberries.
I saw the movie too. Like you, I've read about the latest on the N.Carolina redistricting plan, which I think was one of the worst of a very bad and blatantly anti-democratic bunch of similar plans. I seem to remember — oh, maybe 20 or 30 years ago — that the oligarchs were more subtle, even more tentative, when it came to their goals and methods (or was I not paying attention...?). How can we change this situation which is plainly killing whatever genuine democracy we have left? I would say, first and foremost, more people need to vote. I've read somewhere that if all the people eligible to vote actually did in 2016, Trump would never have won. It angers me that many people who vote in presidential elections don't bother in the off years. And of course, many are too cynical and/or depressed and demoralized to bother at all. I think I understand what they're feeling, but it's doing none of us any good. ... If Democrats should get into power again, I hope they understand down to their bones the need to attend to their voters' motivations or lack thereof. They need to do party rehab, party nurturing. They say Obama was bad as a party leader because he was too aloof and too cerebral. There could be something in that. The Democrats need fighters, people who take this battle — this war, which is what it is — seriously.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Pico. Everyone is interested in some things and not others. Some like to tinker with cars, for others what's under the hood will forever be a mystery. And for many, politics is not something they get. I understand that.
ReplyDeleteBut just like being a parent means you have to learn about parenting and child development, being a member of a democracy requires you learn about politics. In both cases, you shirk your responsibilities at your own - and others' - peril. Maybe that's why there are lots of people who want a powerful leader to 'take care' of things so they don't have to pay attention.
People of good will on both sides could cut through the BS and write easy to follow overviews of the issues and the candidates. Netflix could develop a dramatic series that makes current events as interesting as sports or other spectator events.
Imagine a series on each of our gubernatorial candidates - they childhoods, their work careers, the values, and interviews with people that know them well. And then the fourth series would be how they come together in the election. Or maybe there could be one series with episodes on the candidates individually, the campaign, and then the follow up.
I'd also like to see someone keep track of all the predictions made about candidates, policies, etc. and then give a score for each predictor. Lots of ways to make this stuff interesting and get people to vote. Certainly the Parkland students have tapped into the possibilities.
I just wrote a reply to your reply, clicked on Preview, and it disappeared. Don't know why, but undoubtedly it's due to my endemic struggles w/ technology. ... I said, essentially, that it's indeed easy to get cynical and depressed over politics but that trends like that represented by the Parkland students and the many women deciding they want to enter politics demonstrate the positive energy that is changing things from the ground up. And if the Dems ever do get full gov't. control — both houses of congress plus the white house — we'll see a lot of reform, political and social, and a lot having to do w/ voting too. Here's an easy prediction: Congress will pass a law that every candidate for U.S. President must publish his or her tax returns. No exceptions.
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