To understand how important it is to reform the Democratic Party, consider the statement Democratic presidential candidate Bill Richardson made just before a televised presidential debate on the eve of Halloween 2007.
Telling other Democratic presidential candidates to stop criticizing Hillary Clinton’s reliance on campaign donations bundled by lobbyists, Richardson said, “It’s OK to get aggressive on the issues, but to make personal attacks on somebody’s attachments to lobbyists, that’s not the kind of positive tone I want to see.”
What Bill Richardson cannot seem to fathom is that the power of corporate lobbyists over the American political system in general and political candidates in particular is one of the most important issues of the 2008 presidential election. If Democratic presidential candidates can’t address the problem of lobbyists purchasing influence over elected officials, because the issue is just too personal, then they cannot address the issue of corruption.
If looking the other way while corruption twists the Democratic Party into a corporate tool is what Bill Richardson thinks of as a “positive tone” for the 2008 election, that’s not a very positive reflection on Bill Richardson’s integrity. A political party’s primary process is supposed to be about giving voters the chance to decide for themselves which candidate best represents their ideals. Sweeping problems under the rug and pretending that they don’t exist can only be considered positive by those who prefer to pretend that those problems don’t exist.
It’s up to voters to refuse Bill Richardson’s cover for corruption within the Democratic Party. It’s the responsibility of voters to find true progressives within the Democratic Party, and give those progressives their support, instead of just going along with whomever the corporate lobbyists have bankrolled as the Party’s candidate.
(Source: Associated Press, October 30, 2007)
“What Bill Richardson cannot seem to fathom is that the power of corporate lobbyists over the American political system in general and political candidates in particular is one of the most important issues of the 2008 presidential election.”
Nader said the same thing about corporations influence over our political system when he ran for office but only his few followers agreed with him or were even aware of the issue back then. (Before Nader, Perot made similar warning comments about NAFTA and was disregarded as a kook.) Too bad the American electorate can’t handle the truth, but instead votes for the best mudslinger, swift-boater or lying sack of shit with the most popularity. Good luck gettin’ out of the mess we’re in any time soon.