Real Regime Change

Ronald Reagan once said, “Government can’t solve the problem. It is the problem.” And then he proceeded to prove his point by showing us how bad government can get. Ever since, ideologues of a similar bent have followed in his footsteps trying to prove his point by governing just as badly. But one is not proven prescient just by winning a bet on a race he's fixed.

So now the supposed reform party has regained a modicum of power and a corrupt system will be steered in “a new direction.” There are developments to be excited about. I am encouraged that Barbara Boxer will be chairwoman of the Environment and Public Works Committee— succeeding a chairman who still thinks global warming is a hoax. Thank God there are politicians in office that I can actually believe are still motivated by a passion to promote the common good and that they are in positions to finally fulfill such dreams.

But how can the common good remain the focus of a system that is so dependent on institutions of such extreme self-interest as the corporations? Just to run for a mid-level office today requires such an astronomical amount of concentrated capital, it is impossible for influence peddling not to be a prominent feature of our governmental process.

Reform? It will always remain true that there will be no lasting reform without campaign finance reform. Yet both the major parties insist that requiring a king’s ransom to run for office is a good thing— a fundamental tenet of free speech. Not the best outcome of bipartisan cooperation one might hope for.

Do they really think that defending the oil company's perogative to spend 95 million dollars on a campaign, allowing them to buy up every second of ad time on television, and bludgeon our sensibilities with misinformation to the exclusion of all other perspectives is the way to protect our free speech rights? I guess Democratic leadership, despite all evidence to the contrary, apparently considers the thesis that saturation propaganda has a devastating effect on ones ability to make an informed choice at the polls also a hoax— like global warming and evolution are for others deep in denial.

One of the major hurdles to reform has always been, as Upton Sinclair once pointed out, that certain people have a hard time believing what they are paid a good salary not to believe. Still, if we want to get some real integrity in the real world, we need to get real with ourselves one day soon. Regime change doesn’t just start at home. It starts in the heart. Being a democrat is not enough. But, one would hope, it's a step in the right direction.